Persephone
by Eldr-Fire
Summary: Something bizarre was flourishing in the marshes of southern Grass Country. Kakashi laced his boots and waded knee-deep through the marshes, cursing his luck through the gas mask strapped to his face. 2nd place winner of KakaSaku Mythology contest.
1. The Kidnapping

The Kidnapping

* * *

_With Demeter's girl captive, through grassy plains, drawn in a four-yoked car with loosened reins, rapt over the deep, impelled by love, you flew till Eleusinia's city rose to view: there, in a wondrous cave obscure and deep, the sacred maid secure from search you keep, the cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display an entrance to the kingdoms void of day._

_- Orphic Hymn 18 to Pluton_

_

* * *

_

Legend held that Hatake Kakashi's fate had been determined by drawing the shortest stick.

Even though the Fourth Great Ninja War had ended with the successful defeat of Akatsuki, there were always new threats emerging. As it was, there were three fronts that needed direction. There was an increasing amount of suspicious activity on the southern coast of Fire Country. The ocean was never too great a concern before, but conflict was brewing on the waters. Then of course there was Konoha itself, in need of a new Hokage after Tsunade had personally rewarded her powerful leadership during the war with a demotion.

But most troublesome of all was the quiet battle to the west. Something bizarre was flourishing in the marshes of southern Grass Country. And while Naruto tipped his wide-brimmed hat to shield his eyes from the sun and Sasuke fastened the top button of his coat against the cold sea wind, Kakashi laced his boots and waded knee-deep through the marshes, cursing his luck through the gas mask strapped to his face.

* * *

Sakura rolled her eyes at the antics of her guides, three local girls who couldn't stop giggling. They were quite pretty, especially when they laughed, and their hair flowed freely down their backs in auburn tresses that shone in the sun. And they knew it. The girls constantly giggled as they watched their hair twist about in the wind, and their mood took a significant dip whenever the clouds covered the sun. It was clear that they were more interested in pointing out the daisies and butterflies than collecting highly important and classified samples of dangerous plants.

One dangerous plant, to be specific: Datsuryokusou. It was the reason Sakura had abandoned the comfort of her Konoha apartment in exchange for the wearisome trek to the turbulent region of Neebaru. A mix of hills and narrow valleys tucked into the southeastern corner of Grass Country, Neebaru hugged the borders of both Fire and Rain. In recent years, the area had become the home to a most curious plant. Most plants emitted a natural chakra that was quite benign, but Datsuryokusou was much more sinister. Any humans that inhaled its dizzying fumes would quickly fall victim to its powerful absorption of chakra. Temporary protection could be offered by a gas mask, but even that was not safe for long. Under Tsunade and Sakura's direction, Konoha was conducting some very experimental research on harnessing natural chakra, which was largely inspired by Naruto's sage mode. Sakura had stubbornly ignored the warnings of the potential danger and demanded that she be sent out to collect a sample of the Datsuryokusou.

That is, if the local guides she had picked up at Bordertown could stop their tittering laughter long enough to fasten the gas masks into place.

"Girls, gas masks," Sakura ground out.

One of the girls pouted. "But they're so ugly and bulky," she whined. "And my hair is getting in the way."

"Then chop it off." A chorus of affronted gasps. "Seriously, I don't care. We've wasted enough time already with your stupid bunny rabbits."

There were some reassuring murmurs to the youngest girl before the guides grudgingly fixed the gas masks in place. Sakura waited impatiently, adjusting to seeing the world through the thick glass lenses. She wished that they could have been given slightly more updated equipment, but all of the top-of-the-line technology was shipped straight to Neebaru, or somewhere near there. Sakura didn't know the details. It had been four years since Kakashi-sensei was sent out here, but nobody could ever give Sakura straight details as to what he was doing. There were an awful lot of men and women being sent out to the Grass border, receiving top-secret training before being sent in a monthly shipment. Even with her high position at the hospital, there were materials being developed that she could not review without higher security clearance.

She shifted the shoulder strap of her pack. When the specific location of the Datsuryokusou had been disclosed to her, she had fleetingly wondered if she would see Kakashi out here. But she had dismissed it almost instantly; she was here for a quick job, in and out with the samples in tow. Out here, he was a commander of the highest rank and no doubt had better things to do than wander idly through a field of poisonous plants. There was not even the slimmest chance that they would cross paths.

Bringing her musings to a close, she turned to the girls. "Ready?"

"Yes, Sakura-san," they chorused sullenly. Sakura allowed herself a satisfied smile and then resumed their walk. They had entered the Neebaru region, having crossed the border into Grass country earlier that morning. While they had originally been moving due west, they had shifted southward a little. It was now very late in the afternoon, the sun burning low in the sky as it slipped steadily towards the horizon.

The land became very hilly very quickly. Sakura gave the girls credit for keeping their complaints about the walk to a minimum, but she still wished she didn't need them as they were slowing her down considerably. At this rate, she feared they wouldn't reach the plants before dark. She kept an eye out for their notorious deep red color, but she couldn't see anything useful. Just a lot of grass.

The eldest guide stopped. "Wait," she whispered. Sakura stopped, waiting as the girl took a few cautious steps forward. After nearly a minute she turned to Sakura. She was a positively creepy sight, her simple white gown fluttering innocently around her ankles while she spoke in a voice as sweet as cherries through the ugly, protruding grid of the mask. "Wait here with Aiko."

The youngest stayed behind while the two elder girls ran around the base of a particularly high hill. A chill autumn breeze ghosted past, pricking the goosebumps on Sakura's skin. As she waited, she watched her shadow stretch, elongated and distorted by the sun that set behind her. The sounds of the outdoors were muffled by the mask, leaving her trapped inside it with the heavy sound of her own breathing.

She nearly jumped as a gas mask poked around the hill. "Over here!" one of the girls shouted; she couldn't tell the difference between any of them. Checking that Aiko was with her (the girl had been braiding her own hair), she jogged over to where the other two guides waited. She circled the hill but was abruptly stopped when one of the girls held out a pale arm.

Confused, she looked around. The tall hill was blocking the sun, casting the landscape in a dark shadow, but she could see that the hills gave way to flatter land about a mile up ahead. "I don't see anything..."

"Down there."

She looked down and was startled to see a steep drop off. It was nearly impossible to make out from ground level, but when she was directly on top of it she could see the sloping walls that led down to what appeared to be a small body of water. She squinted through the thick eyepieces and nearly cried out in triumph when she saw the trickle of dark red lining the banks.

"This is it," she muttered, a savage smile stretching across her face. _Finally!_ Inner Sakura, who rarely made an appearance these days, began to tap a victory dance. She had endured hours of tree hopping and agonizing hours of the mindless chatter of the guides for this wet little hole in the middle of nowhere.

After much fretting and some dirtied dresses, Sakura and the guides reached the bottom of the valley. _They weren't kidding when they said it was narrow,_ Sakura noted. She glanced up at what looked like a gaping hole in the sky but was really just the opening of the ravine. It yawned jaggedly at her, revealing twinkling stars where the velvety night sky was washing out the orange stains left of the day.

The lighting was not great, but it would have to do. She groped for her hip pouch, taking out the small tools she would need to extract a sample. "You girls just wait right there," she said, approaching the banks. They obediently huddled together, clinging to the walls of the cliff.

Datsuryokusou had started in small holes like this one that dotted the pockmarked landscape of this country. Sakura had been told that by now it had spread to across the great river, but she would not need to go there: the samples she collected here would be sufficient. Besides, it was dangerous there. That was where they sent the mysterious shipments of quiet young men in black cloaks. She had been warned to steer clear of the dark waters of that river, _especially_ at night.

She crouched at the water's edge, her sandals squelching in the mud. The pulsation of the red flower's chakra was practically tangible; Sakura could feel it through the leather of her gloves as she pressed down gently on a petal, revealing the nectar within.

The chakra from the Datsuryokusou was almost intoxicating, even though it was filtered through her mask. She found it difficult to focus on her own chakra, and it was very hard to be aware of the different chakras around her. There were the overwhelming signatures of the Datsuryokusou, of course, but underneath them she could pick out the faint civilian chakra of the girls, a few fish swimming low in the pond, and--

She froze. Twisting her head around, she glanced fearfully up at the mouth of the ravine. There was something moving up there. Fast. Its chakra was difficult to pinpoint, but it felt erratic and dangerous.

"Girls, get--"

One of the guides shrieked as a silhouette appeared on the western edge of the opening. Sakura bolted towards the girls, but the creature moved too fast: Before she could get to them, it had scaled the cliffside and landed with an angry splash on the muddy ground directly in front of the girls. With one angry swipe it knocked off Aiko's mask.

Sakura kicked it squarely in the back. It did not make any noise but stumbled away from the girls. Sakura assumed a defensive stance in front of them, holding up her fists and trying to evaluate the creature in front of her.

It stood with its shoulders hunched, its arms hanging from its sides like a gorilla's. Spikes of dark hair fell lank around its ghoulish face. Bandages covered its eyes. Sharp teeth were visible from its mouth, which hung agape in a circle of bluish lips. It appeared to be wearing some sort of body armor, but its pants were thin and torn. The chakra signature she was receiving from it was frenzied; it felt like a human, but it looked like it had just emerged from a watery grave.

She only had a few seconds to take in the creature's appearance before it lunged at her, jagged fingernails like claws ripping towards her face. The two conscious girls screamed behind her as she ducked the swipe and countered with a powerful punch to the jaw, enhanced by her chakra. Blue sparks flew from its face to her hand, accompanied by a serious crack as the creature's face was whipped to the side, its body following it clumsily as it stumbled. It didn't seem to be particularly nimble, but it recovered almost immediately, ignoring its surely broken jaw and rounding on Sakura once more.

Her glove was singed where the sparks had touched it, and her hand stung. _What on earth?!_ She blocked the surprisingly strong blow the creature sent at her, wincing against the impact of its sickly flesh on her arm guard. Armor covered its torso, but its lower body was vulnerable, so she directed a kick at the groin. She had assumed the creature was male, but besides stumbling backwards again it didn't seem to register any pain.

With surprising speed it darted around her and tried to strike for one of the girls. Sakura grabbed its arm, wrenching it backwards as the girl screamed. She hissed in pain as the sparks jumped over her glove, burning a hole through the leather. Her grip slackened reflexively from the pain. Seizing the opportunity, the creature tore free. It reached out and yanked the face mask from the terrified girl, who was pressed up against the wall of the ravine. She screamed and slumped to the ground. The creature loomed over her, but Sakura sent a burst of chakra through her arms and pulled it away.

The instant her chakra-laden arms came in contact with the creature, a powerful shock surged through her system and sent her flying backwards. She landed with a thud against the ravine wall and the creature started running, turning in a wide sweep and heading straight for her. Jumping to her feet, she tried to aim a high kick to its neck, but it dodged and grabbed the front of her mask, jerking it forward. The buckle at the back snapped as the creature yanked it off.

Sakura wriggled out of the tight spot she had been trapped in while her assailant threw the mask to the side. Already the fumes of the Datsuryokusou were starting to affect her-- her vision swam, everything curdling in moonwashed plumes of darkness. She felt light-headed, intoxicated by the aroma. She could vaguely hear another scream as the final girl had her mask ripped from her face. A yelp leapt from her throat as she tripped into a batch of blood-red flowers.

Choking, she fumbled at the kunai holster on her thigh. Her fingers shook with the effort, and she could feel her chakra draining. Summoning the rest of her rapidly dwindling strength, she gripped the fraying bandages of the kunai handle and threw it towards the monster.

With a clang of metal on metal it was deflected, but not by its target. In her heady confusion she could barely make out a billowing black cloak before she lost consciousness.

* * *

Kakashi felt the wet splashes of mud scale his legs as he crashed through the marshes. Usually he preferred stealth, but tonight called for special circumstances. Under no condition would he allow his target to get past the hills of Neebaru. It was already unforgivable enough that it had made it across the river, but now he was _personally_ involved, and he was something of an expert in these matters.

Bull barked from up ahead, his jowls trembling as he turned his head back towards his master. "We've got the scent, he's going southeast!" With the sea of red flowers around him, he completely relied on his canine familiars to guide him. Their target tracked, the four dogs picked up speed. Kakashi roughly shoved his headband up onto his forehead, letting his Sharingan shoot open and scan the area. With their demonic chakra, the monsters were a flaming beacon to his eye.

And-- yes. There it was, straight ahead. He could make out the inhuman racing of its chakra even from this distance.

The trees around them thinned and the ground evened out. Soon his footfalls were softened by the undergrowth of crimson petals. He always thought that the Datsuryokusou bore a striking resemblance to poppies, but he knew better than to think they were so benign. The pretty red flowers tore up underneath the claws of his hounds as they raced after the monster. He could make out the hills up ahead, and-- _there!_ His Sharingan watched the angry blue scorch mark on the horizon disappear behind a tall mound of earth.

Soon they had passed the red flowers and were running on plain grass that tickled their ankles. They were running so fast that they kicked up little clods of dirt as they went. His eye scanned the landscape, searching for a trace of the creature. It still frustrated him that his nose was useless here. At least he didn't have to wear one of those godforsaken gas masks anymore.

"Boss, he's down in a ravine up there!" Pakkun called. Kakashi nodded at his dogs, giving them permission to lead the way. They somehow found the strength to move even faster: He watched them bound around the hills before all of a sudden, they disappeared.

Someone screamed. He followed the dogs down the ravine, quickly skidding down the wall with practiced ease. But he was momentarily distracted by the presence of other chakra signatures-- three civilian and one achingly familiar kunoichi.

As Bisuke and Pakkun ran towards the civilian signatures, Kakashi's eye swiveled onto the shinobi. He hadn't quite believed it until he saw her pink hair falling around her face, pale in the moonlight...

Her face-- it was exposed. No wonder she looked like she was about to pass out. Her eyes were unfocused but directed towards the grotesque beast that lumbered dangerously close to her. She released a kunai that whistled towards the creature, but it was off center and would have missed its target even if Kakashi hadn't thrust his arm up to block it. It flew away from his arm guard.

He heard the disgusting, exaggerated sniffs of the monster as it noticed him. As soon as it registered his familiar scent it lunged at him with full strength, but Kakashi was ready. In one swift movement he dodged the powerful but imprecise blow and countered with a strong jab of his spear. It pierced the monster's neck: Eerily, it did not cry out in pain but only staggered backwards. There was a disturbing lack of bloodshed-- no more than a dark trickle. He knew that he had to act quickly or his attack would have no lasting effect. As it stumbled stupidly, its chakra flew with unprecedented vigor to the wound, utilizing an inhuman amount of chakra to rapidly heal the wound just enough to prevent it from being fatal.

Kakashi stabbed the wooden spear into the neck again, gritting his teeth as he drove it through with an angry twist. Seeing with his Sharingan that it was directing a disproportionate amount of its chakra flow to the opening, he jerked the spear out and fluidly drew his wooden sword from its sheath on his back.

Bull tackled the monster, dragging it down by the heels. Shiba pounced on its chest, holding it in place while Kakashi stepped towards the head. It fought against the constraints, veins bulging in its neck as it strained to hold its head up. Kakashi looked down coldly at its drawn face, its mouth open in a permanent silent scream.

There was nothing human about it.

And in one almighty movement, he swung the sword down and severed the monster's neck.

Its head fell back with a wet squelch into the mud. Kakashi panted heavily as he twisted around, his cloak following his movements like a tangible shadow in the darkness. The Datsuryokusou smiled innocently at him in the suddenly quiet night.

Pakkun nudged his ankle, rubbing his wet nose against the thick material of his boot. "We did our best to put the masks back on the civilian girls," he said, "but the last one was broken. I think that other one is..."

"Sakura," Kakashi breathed. He jogged over to where she had fallen. Kneeling beside her, he lifted her from the bed of red plants, supporting her upper back with his arm. He tugged one of his gloves off with his teeth and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. It was burning.

He hoisted her over his shoulder. "You said you've got the masks back on the other girls?"

Bisuke barked in the affirmative. Kakashi nodded. "Right, we'll send someone out for them right away." Truthfully he wasn't sparing much thought for the civilians, which he knew was deplorable, but he couldn't quite accept that he was holding Sakura in his arms.

He shoved his headband down over his Sharingan, sighing with relief as the chakra burden instantly lessened. Instead he directed his chakra to his feet so that he could scale the nearly vertical ravine wall, holding Sakura tight around the waist to keep her secure.

After that, it was a fairly short run back. He saved energy with a slow run until they returned to the domain of the red flowers, when he broke into a near sprint. Sakura was still completely vulnerable-- her signature had been weak enough back at the ravine. They splashed through the marshes in a hurry; Pakkun and Bisuke, the fastest of the dogs, were coming back with him while Shiba and Bull watched over the girls.

Soon the river was in sight. His breath searing in his throat, raw with the chill of the autumn night, he came to the banks of the great river.

It was truly a sight to behold, winding powerfully through the thick spread of the Datsuryokusou. They had jokingly nicknamed it the Sanzu because crossing it was like leaving the realm of the living for the undead.

As he hit the bank, a dark figure drifted towards him. It became distinguished as a hooded man, rowing across the great river. Impatiently, Kakashi waded into the river, fishing around in his hip pouch for his rite of passage.

When the boat came closer the ferryman turned his shrouded face towards Kakashi. He could only make out his thick eyebrows through the layers of shadows.

Kakashi held out a dirty gold coin. The ferryman leaned forward, inspecting the proffered token before nodding in approval and shifting in the boat to make room for Kakashi and his cargo. As he laid Sakura down gently on the seat, opting to squat himself, the ferryman did a double take

"Is that... _Sakura-san_?!"

"Just row, Lee."

Lee obeyed, exercising a special haste to get them back across the river. They were closest to Base 3, Furegaton, which was right on the river. By the time they hit the shore Kakashi was already running out with Sakura slung over his shoulder.

He only slowed to address a sentry. "I need you to tell your boss to send out a small retrieval team. Bisuke will show them the way-- Bull and Shiba are already down there." The sentry nodded frightfully, intimidated by the direct address by the commander.

Kakashi continued into the camp, throwing open two thick metal doors and letting them fall shut behind him with a deafening thud as he strode down the halls. His boots made tinny footsteps on the metal floors as he trailed mud along the reflections of pale fluorescent lights.

He turned sharply into a brightly lit room. It was long and narrow, the windowless walls lined with beds. Laying Sakura down on the first empty one he saw, he gave her a final glance before hurrying down the narrow central aisle. A nurse looked over her shoulder at him, barely fazed by finding her commander haggard and dirty in the middle of her pristine hospital room. She had seen far worse here.

"Yes sir?" she inquired, spreading politeness thin over her weariness.

Kakashi glanced over his shoulder. "Exposure to Datsuryokusou," he explained breathlessly. "Unknown duration, but unconscious when I found her."

He pressed himself against the rails at the end of a bed to make room for the nurse to move towards Sakura. He followed anxiously, peering over the nurse's shoulder as she took Sakura's pulse.

"She's a kunoichi," he blurted. The nurse pursed her lips, apparently insulted that he believed she couldn't infer as much. After all, there were numerous weapons on her person.

There was a tense minute of silence while the nurse conducted several simple tests. He could only judge the situation by the deepening crease in her forehead. Finally, she sighed and turned to him.

"I'm afraid her chakra is pretty severely depleted," she said. "But it isn't fatal. We can put her on some of the chakra-replenishing meds for now, but we can't spare it all for her."

Kakashi nodded in understanding. Despite their considerable funding, they still didn't have an endless supply of the precious medicine used to treat Datsuryokusou exposure, and Sakura was not a high-priority patient as she was unrelated to their operations.

Still, he had been very worried, and as the nurse left for the medicine he sat down on the edge of the adjacent bed. He resisted the impulse to push her bangs, slick with sweat, out of her eyes, but instead he let his hands fall in between his legs as he slumped forward. Blearily he watched her even breathing.

She turned her head slightly and revealed an angry red mark, presumably where the strap of her gas mask had been. He frowned, wondering why the hell she had been there in the first place.

The four years that had passed since he last saw her were clear. Certainly her physical appearance had changed... He scratched at his cloth-covered nose. She was dressed in an outfit very similar to Tsunade's, gray robe tied just under the bust and blue leggings underneath. The only difference was the black cloak she wore, which had been torn by her encounter with the monster.

Kakashi suppressed a shiver. It was lucky he had gotten there when he did; a few more minutes and she would have been zombie food.

* * *

Neji leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin. He closed his eyes, sighing as he released the Byakugan. It had been a long distance off, but he could've sworn he had seen...

He snapped his fingers authoritatively. Almost immediately the door to his quarters creaked open.

"Yessir?"

He stood up and turned to face the chuunin hovering nervously in the crack of the door. "I need to send some scouts across the border."

The chuunin's eyes widened. "A-across the border, sir? Isn't that Hatake-san's territory?"

A slim dark eyebrow rose. "Are you questioning my orders?"

Adam's apple wobbling, the chuunin shook his head. "Of course not, sir! I'll bring a squad to your quarters immediately!"

Within fifteen minutes four shinobi were standing at attention in front of Neji's desk. Hands clasped behind his back, he addressed them.

"There are three civilians in a ravine in Neebaru. I know there are a lot of ravines, but Hiro-san should be able to locate this one." He inclined his head at his fellow Hyuuga. "It's infested with Datsuryokusou, so you'll need masks."

The squad leader nodded. "Is there anything else, sir?"

A smile quirked at the edge of Neji's lips. "Yes, actually... there should be a spear there; I'd like you to bring it to me. I think Commander Hatake was in quite the rush to get out of there." He saw the fear flash across their faces and amended, "Don't worry, the only thing down there that can hurt you is a few little flowers."

Their masculinity officially challenged, the squad nodded solemnly and left. Neji sighed, sitting down to pen a short letter to Kakashi.

He sucked thoughtfully on the end of the quill he insisted on using (as there had to be _some _refinery in this hovel). Some time had passed since his last correspondence with Kakashi, so he would need to include some discussion of business matters, but he had been preparing for that so he already had all of the numbers ready.

None of that was occupying his mind presently, though. Even the little jibe he would make about the spear being left behind was secondary to the greater question weighing on him: Should he mention what he had seen? Kakashi would assume that he had born witness to the little rescue, since there was no other way he would have known to send a retrieval squad. But Kakashi quietly assuming and Neji actually pointing out were two very different things, and Kakashi was notoriously touchy when it came to his former students.

_That _former student in particular.

Of course, Neji doubted that his abduction of Sakura had been anything but impromptu, and it was unlikely that she had intended to spend an extended amount of time outside of Fire Country. Part of him wanted to say that he could rely on Kakashi to ship Sakura back home immediately, but he knew better than that. Kakashi was incredibly lonely and would no doubt milk Sakura's stay for as much as it was worth.

And he hesitated to do anything about that. Was it really his place to step in? It was an accident that he had witnessed the whole ordeal in the first place. Was it really his business what Kakashi decided to do with anyone unlucky enough to cross the river?

It wasn't that he expected Kakashi to engage in any unsavory behavior-- far from it. No, it was just that a small part of him worried that Kakashi would... _neglect_ to inform Konoha that Sakura was with him. Because it was no secret that Tsunade would vehemently demand that her precious apprentice be returned to Konoha immediately if not sooner, but it was a lesser known fact that Kakashi probably missed his former student just as much.

* * *

While two of her sisters lay on white beds beside her, Aiko watched with wide and fearful eyes as a slender man approached her. His dark hair fell like a seamless curtain of silk around his face and shoulders. She nervously twisted strands of her own hair around her small index finger, wincing against the loud scraping noise as the man dragged a chair to the end of her bed. He sat on it backwards, folding his arms across the back of the chair and resting his chin squarely on top of them.

"Please tell me what you saw," he requested politely. His eyes were a pale shade of lavender.

"There was this ugly th-th-_thing_ that attacked my s-sisters, and..." She swallowed, pressing her fingers against her mouth in distress. The man in the chair gave a small sigh and then an encouraging smile.

"Go ahead," he said gently. "No need to be afraid."

"But it was just so _scary_!" The last word left her mouth in an unintelligible shrill as she buried her face in her knees. "The monster just attacked us and Sakura-san tried to fight it but it almost knocked her out and she fell into the Da-da-Datsuryokusou and then it came for _me _and it would've killed EVERYONE but then-- then--" She gasped before embarking on another breathless explanation. "Then there was this _man_ who came down to save us!"

"Go on," she heard the man say. "Tell me about the man."

Aiko gulped. She sat up, holding out her arms at her full wingspan and waving them about for dramatic effect. "He had a great black cloak made of shadows! It bi-billowed around him, and he had four animals with him, they were... uh, uh, HORSES! Yeah, yes, big black horses, and they swooped in and they-- _took_-- her!"

She rubbed at her eyes, her chest rising and falling heavily with the excitement. The man looked slightly skeptical.

"How long had your gas mask been off?" he questioned, a sardonic smile tugging at his mouth.

"Hardly any time at all!" she protested. "I swear, mister, even though he saved Sakura-san he was so scary." Her bottom lip trembled. "He was like death itself."

* * *

_Author's Note: Adapted from the Greek myth "The Kidnapping of Persephone" for the KakaSaku Mythology challenge, hosted by Zelha on the KakaSaku Livejournal community. Thank you to ScaryRei for being a very good beta, despite our time constrictions._


	2. Hades

Hades

* * *

_I when the lots were shaken drew the grey sea to live in forever; Aides drew the lot of the mists and the darkness, and Zeus was allotted the wide sky, in the cloud and the bright air._

_- Homer, Iliad 15. 187_

_

* * *

_

Sakura woke up but did not open her eyes. She could immediately determine that she was in an unfamiliar place. This bed was not hers, and there was something poking uncomfortably into her arm. A dense humidity pressed in on her from all sides; beads of sweat trickled down her temple.

She struggled to recall what had happened. The last thing she remembered was how comfortable the bed of soft red flowers had been, washing away her feelings of helplessness and fear. But there had been something else, _someone _else...

A low chuckle from her right side made her tense up. "I was beginning to think you'd never wake up."

That voice. She _knew _that voice. Even in the four long years of separation she hadn't forgotten it.

Curiosity betraying her, she cracked open an eye. He was sitting on the edge of a bed beside her, one leg up and folded so that his ankle rested on his knee. He looked different than she remembered; the faults of memory had grown his nose out and exaggerated the flop of his hair over his headband. His clothes were different, too. He was dressed completely in black-- black shirt with a black strap cutting across his torso for the sword poking over his shoulder, black pants, black headband. He was even wearing a black cloak. The hood bunched around his shoulders, and the long fabric pooled behind him on the white bed.

Wait a minute-- the black cloak...

She frowned at him. "It was you?" she said simply.

The material of his mask stretched as he smiled. She noticed that his eye was cradled by a dark blue smudge. "No need to get down on your knees and thank me," Kakashi said dryly. "Pledging lifelong gratitude will be fine."

A scowl shaped her lips. For an instant it felt like old times-- Kakashi aggravating, Sakura reacting, Kakashi sitting back in amusement. Was it really this easy to slip back into a routine after four still years of no communication?

But she was getting ahead of herself. She looked down at the IV taped to her arm, and she recognized the feeling of having her chakra slowly replenished. "What happened?" she asked the clear tube. Suddenly she didn't want to look at him. "Where is my chakra?"

The frown was evident in his voice. "You don't remember?"

"Well... I can remember parts..."

"You were practically buried in Datsuryokusou."

Oh, there was that. It was all coming back to her. A cold feeling of dread crept up from low in her belly, and she turned to Kakashi, her brow creased with worry. She sat up, her arms trembling a little-- she was weaker than she had expected.

"What about that... thing? Did you get it? And what about the girls?" Her voice rose in panic; she had forgotten all about her innocent, defenseless guides. She whipped her head to the left and right, but she didn't recognize them in any of the beds lining the long, skinny room.

Kakashi held up his hands to placate her. She turned to him and noticed that he held a deep red fruit in one hand. "They're fine. They were picked up by scouts from another camp."

Her shoulders sagged in relief. As annoying as they were, she would have felt pretty damn responsible if they had been killed by that monster. Speaking of which... "Did you kill that, um..."

She wasn't sure what to call it, but Kakashi understood what she was saying. "Yes, I suppose that's what you'd say I did," he mused.

She arched an eyebrow. "You suppose? You mean it's still out there?"

Kakashi sighed. "Oh no, it's gone."

Sakura squirmed a little in bed. "Uh... what exactly _was _it?"

A strange look flickered across his eye. He waved a hand dismissively at her, evading her gaze when he said, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" she repeated incredulously. "I've never seen anything like it before! It was freaky, it was-- well, it wasn't human, Kakashi!"

"Was it?" he asked absently.

Confused but not deterred, she pressed, "Well, that's what I'm asking you. What was it?"

He looked her square in the eye. "A zombie."

In spite of herself, she laughed. "Come on, be serious."

Kakashi shrugged. "Suit yourself." He held out the deep red fruit in offering. "Pomegranate?"

Chakra exhaustion always left her a little queasy, and she really didn't want to see the color red right now-- those damned Datsuryokusou were the source of a lot of strife for her at the moment. "No thanks."

He shrugged again and stowed the fruit in one of the folds of his -- also black -- hip pouch.

Sakura rubbed at the back of her neck, wincing as she felt the welt where the gas mask had been ripped from her head. Suddenly she frowned again.

"Hang on a minute..." His eye widened a little at her suspicious tone. "How come you weren't wearing a gas mask?" Now that she knew it had been Kakashi who arrived at the last minute, the images in her mind made more sense, and she was pretty confident she would've remembered seeing his gas mask.

Kakashi sighed, rubbing the side of his face with a gloved palm. "All right, let me explain. Now, due to some... issues and the experimental nature of what I'm about to tell you, Konoha has not been made officially aware of all of this, but... hopefully when you go back you can fill people in so that's one fewer thing I have to take care of."

Very intrigued now given his disclaimer, she watched him with renewed interest. "As you know," he began, "the Datsuryokusou infestation here is pretty severe. I'm not sure if you know this, but exposure to these plants results in--"

Sakura interrupted impatiently. "Yes, I came here to collect samples of it, actually."

He looked very taken aback by this. "Here? In Neebaru?"

"No, in Earth Country." She rolled her eyes. He seemed unperturbed by her sarcasm at the obviousness of his question, though, and peered very intently at her.

"You were sent here, by Konoha, to collect Datsuryokusou?"

"Yes," she said emphatically. Why was this so difficult for him to grasp?

He uncrossed and recrossed his legs the opposite way, clearly agitated. "No one informed me of this."

She frowned. "Why, is Neebaru considered part of your... territory?"

He shook his head. "That's not the point, but no, it's not technically under Konoha's jurisdiction."

"Well... duh. It's part of Grass Country."

His sigh expressed great frustration at how uninformed she apparently was. "Why don't you just let me explain, hm?"

A little cowed, she nodded. "Okay, go on."

Kakashi frowned at his hand; he looked like he was trying to figure out how to begin. Finally, he said, "Well, a little over four years ago, when the Fourth Ninja War was wrapping up, Konoha started getting funny reports from this region. Grass Country helped us fight Akatsuki -- it was actually fellow Grass nin that took out Zetsu, if I remember correctly, as they took his villainy a bit personally -- so they requested our assistance in investigating something that was going on in their country near our border."

She could tell that he was launching into one of his lengthy explanations. During personal conversations he could be annoyingly curt, but when an opportunity to show off his broad knowledge presented itself, he could go on and on. Not that Sakura ever minded; there was something comforting about having Kakashi playing the part of sensei again.

"Grass is particularly known for lots of experimental jutsu, at least among their proportionately high ranks... eh, large numbers of rogue shinobi," he amended. "But even though the war was over, the daimyous of Grass and Earth had been squabbling over something else -- I think it was some environmental hazard on Earth's border -- so Kusagakure was obligated to participate. As such, they granted Konoha permission to look into the matter on their own, since Kusa had to focus its efforts elsewhere."

Sakura nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, but was this thing that needed investigating? You said it had something to do with experimental jutsu...?"

"Sorry, I was just getting to that," he said, evidently realizing he had employed a bit of a non sequitur. "See..." He sighed again. "Of initial suspicion was the proliferation of Datsuryokusou. Before they had been a bit of an oddity on nobody's radar, but they started spreading at an unprecedented rate. Thankfully, though, the ecosystem has been quick to adapt with the rapid proliferation of the Datsuryokusou's counterpart."

"Counterpart?"

"Yes, the Shiirerusou. Think about it-- the Datsuryokusou would suck the life out of everything if there was nothing in nature to balance it. That's what the Shiirerusou is for; it's a green, grass-like plant that gives off fumes that sort of... cancel out the Datsuryokusou. In the ecosystem, they balance out, although humans have a particular susceptibility to Datsuryokusou."

"And why hasn't this information reached Konoha?" Sakura asked sharply. She had never heard of this Shiirerusou plant.

He looked surprised again. "It has," he said. "We have given them plenty of information on both plants."

Annoyance nipped at Sakura. So was this part of the high-security operation she wasn't allowed access to? That would explain why people had been so frustrated when she demanded to be permitted to gather the Datsuryokusou. She hadn't realized what a sensitive issue it was; she had just been so sick of being cooped up in the hospital that she was surprisingly fierce about getting out of Konoha.

Oblivious to her irritation, Kakashi continued, "Anyway, to answer your original question, that's why I didn't have to wear the gas mask. We've developed a series of injections made out of extracts of different strains of Shiirerusou. The Datsuryokusou has been developing to meet the challenge of our 'vaccines' -- probably why you needed to collect updated samples -- but they're overall very effective. We just inject ourselves with some Shiirerusou and our body will naturally combat the Datsuryokusou."

"And you have some of those?"

"Yep." He patted his shoulder. "I'm set."

Sakura glanced at her own shoulder, where she noticed a small band-aid. "Did you give me those shots?"

"No, those were for stimulating your chakra... It's a little more complicated than just giving someone the shots."

She looked at him curiously. "Why?"

He scratched idly at his nose, saying, "Well, if you have the Shiirerusou but there are no Datsuryokusou fumes for it to suppress, it is actually just as bad for you as the Datsuryokusou is. On their own they're each bad-- one sucks your chakra up, the other pretty much stamps it out. If you have the Shiirerusou in your bloodstream, you need to experience frequent exposure to Datsuryokusou so that the plants can balance each other out. What's more, one series of shots for the different strains will stay in your system for about four months. That's a pretty big commitment for someone on a short expedition from Konoha." He ended with a tight smile.

This was all very hard to take in. She still felt weak from having her chakra drained, and this Datsuwhatever Shiiwhatface business was confusing. She was a bright girl, but she was having trouble connecting all of the dots, since it felt like Kakashi had jumped around a lot in his explanation and was still hiding a lot from her.

Plus there was the minor detail that it was in fact _Hatake Kakashi_ sitting here and telling her these things.

"Wait, so... what was the experimental jutsu thing all about? You never explained that," she said.

"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm just a little distracted..." Without explaining _that, _he continued, "So the proliferation of Datsuryokusou (and by extension Shiirerusou) was suspicious, but it was more than that. There were some unexplained killings going on in this region-- it used to be inhabited by people other than Konoha shinobi, you know. The river -- they called it Kado then -- was home to a lot of people who used Shiirerusou in natural remedies against Datsuryokusou-- it was a small problem then, with infestations showing up only now and then, and on much smaller scales than what we're dealing with presently. And anyway, there was a small massacre of the local people, which is what immediately drew Grass's attention. They sent some shinobi in -- this was right at the end of the war -- and came back with a few bodies, all of missing Grass nin. But the bodies weren't... normal. They were earlier versions of what you encountered. There seems to be a definite connection between the Datsuryokusou and these creatures, but we haven't been able to determine the exact nature yet."

She shivered. "So that's why you were sent out here? To investigate this stuff?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. And it was very difficult at the beginning-- we had no idea what we were going up against, and it was a little while until we realized that we could use the Shiirerusou instead of gas masks. Since then, the things we're fighting have developed, but by now we are pretty well-acquainted with the beast." He said the last with a low growl that sent chills skittering down Sakura's spine. There was an embittered darkness in his eye that Sakura did not recognize.

The look passed, however, and he smiled again at Sakura. "I know you have more questions and I probably didn't do the best job of explaining, but for now, you need to rest. You've been out for two or three days-- as you know, it's going to take a little while for your chakra to restore itself."

Abruptly he stood. "If you need anything, call for a nurse." He began to walk away.

"Wait, where are you going?" It wasn't that she necessarily had more to say -- although he was right that she still had many unanswered questions -- but she just felt... odd, having him leave so quickly after they had only just met each other again.

He stopped and twisted his upper body towards her, frowning. "I'm sorry, but it's a pretty busy time right now," he said, and he truly sounded regretful. "After the, ah... thing that attacked you escaped the other night, we've been tightening security and preparing for another assault on our enemy. I have to debrief some teams before preparing to go out myself."

"You're... fighting more of them?" She couldn't imagine the horror of fighting multiples of those horrendous creatures.

A sad smile. "It's what I do, Sakura."

And then he left, his cloak rippling silently behind him as he strode quickly out of the wing.

Sakura settled into her pillow. This was certainly not what she had expected to wake up to. She felt a little uneasy about how her exchange with Kakashi had gone. Truthfully, she had never imagined that he would have changed much. But he had, in more ways than one. For one thing, it was unsettling to see him donned in all black. Besides just the difference in physical appearance, his choice of attire represented what seemed to be a deeper change. He was darker now. He still had a sense of humor, of course, but it was more morbid, and there was a more pronounced level of gravity to him now. Perhaps it came from being a commander in this murky region of the world-- after all, he had never used to walk with such purpose to his stride.

Four years was a long time. The events that had led to this monumental change in her life -- her team being split along Fire Country' borders -- were a blurred, emotional mishmash of memory. Sasuke leaving for the south had not affected her as much as she would have once thought, and Naruto had planted himself in the heart of Konoha with no worry of leaving, but Kakashi's abrupt departure had disturbed her deeply. There had been no warning. The day after the war ended, Naruto had been selected as Hokage, and sometime during the celebration Kakashi had been whisked away to the western border.

And tonight he was going back out to fight the creatures. Her mind was still whirring with unanswered questions about the nature of these creatures: Why were they so strong? Why were they deformed? What experimental jutsu had Kakashi constantly avoided elaborating on? Just what the hell were they?

* * *

Tonton's hooves clicked against the floor as she tried to find ways to amuse herself. She had given up on nudging Tsunade's ankle with her wet little snout; the former Hokage had been too wrapped up in her conversation with her successor to notice that Tonton wanted some playtime.

"... and we've been growing the plants just like we were asked."

Naruto frowned. "I heard something, and I want you to confirm it..."

Tsunade tapped her foot impatiently. "What?"

Naruto's face scrunched up. "Is it true that they look like corn but taste like... apples?"

"Good God, Naruto, nobody eats them." She rolled her eyes. "I suppose they look a little bit like corn, but... anyway, that's besides the point. Your information about Sage Mode is helping us develop these plants so that we can more easily manipulate their natural chakra. It's going to make a huge impact on medicine in the shinobi and even civilian community and you're not even listening."

There were several moments of silence while Naruto continued to stare at a spot on the wall somewhere to Tsunade's right. "Yeah," he said finally, setting his face in an attempt to look serious.

Tsunade released quite the put-upon sigh. Why had he become Hokage again? Oh yeah, because Kakashi had been stupid enough to pick the short stick. At least, that's how the saying went.

"So is your report done?" Naruto asked. He looked extremely bored, with his palm supporting his chin as his fingers sagged slowly down his cheek.

"Yes, you impertinent brat."

"What's that, baa-chan? You're dismissed, okay?!" He glared at her, his bottom lip curled out in aggressive indignation.

But Tsunade didn't leave. Uncharacteristically, she seemed hesitant and anxious. Her gaze lingered on Naruto's while she hovered at the edge of his desk.

Silence stretched between them. Finally, Naruto let his lip drop. "Baa-chan, Sakura has only been gone for five days!"

Ah. The elephant in the room had been sufficiently prodded.

"Exactly. It should have only taken her four days."

Naruto pouted. "So she's a day late. It could be raining or something. It _is_ Rain Country..."

"Grass Country," she corrected, an edge of irritation lining her tone. "You're Hokage and you don't know the difference between Rain and Grass Country? What was I thinking..." She sank weakly into the chair in front of Naruto's desk. With a heavy sigh, she gathered Tonton into her lap. Tonton happily obliged, curling up across the familiar thighs.

"I'm so worried," Tsunade said quietly. Her elbow was on the armrest and she rested her chin in her palm, her purple fingernails pressing into her round cheeks. "I never should've supported her when she was fighting for this mission..."

Sakura had been incredibly adamant about taking this assignment. Even though it had been slightly out of her security clearance, Tsunade's weight had helped tipped the balance in her favor. It was because Tsunade had noticed that Sakura was getting increasingly stir crazy. Four years ago, she had decided to sacrifice the years she had spent developing her combat skills in order to devote her time to working at the hospital. It had been a difficult decision, and Sakura had been leaning towards the other side of the argument, but then her mother had died. At that point, Tsunade took her completely under her wing. The decision to stay at the hospital was cemented.

The two still trained regularly to keep their skills sharp even while they spent most of their time boxed in by four white walls. Over the four years that had elapsed since Mrs. Haruno's death, Sakura and Tsunade had grown incredibly close. Sakura was the closest thing Tsunade would ever have to a daughter, and in her attachment she had grown incredibly protective of Sakura as well.

However, Sakura had jumped at the chance for this mission. Most people chalked it down to just being stir crazy, and Tsunade desparately bought into that explanation, too. Surely it had just been that she was tired of staying in the hospital all day? There was no way it had anything to do with the particular commander who had been sent far away from Konoha for a _very specific reason._

Tsunade had missed Sakura even the few four days she had been gone. But now that feeling had manifested into full-blown anxiety in Sakura's prolonged absence-- especially considering _where _she had been sent.

Or more specifically, _whom _she might be with.

Naruto sighed. "I think you're overreacting, baa-chan," he said kindly. "Sakura is going to be fine."

"Easy for you to say, brat."

"Well it is easy for me to say! I'm Hokage, you know!" There was that indignant jut of his lip again. "And I happen to know that Sakura was supposed to have high security clearance for a reason--"

"That's reassuring," Tsunade muttered.

"-- because the area she's in is of special, confidential interest to us." He wiggled his eyebrows. "It's Datsuryokusou, after all. We're super careful about that stuff. Besides... the commander out there... Well, she'll be safe."

Oh, great. So now she had to trust Kakashi.

Naruto grinned mischievously, and the ghost of a fox shadowed his grin. "Unless he decides to keep her all for himself!"

Anger shot up in her spine, causing her to stiffen in her chair. She struggled to compose herself. As far as Naruto was concerned, he was sitting in this chair because Kakashi had decided _not_ to cheat for once and _refrain_ from using his Sharingan to guarantee himself the shortest stick. And by extension, a one-way ticket out of Konoha. Tsunade arched an unamused eyebrow at Naruto as he cackled at his desk.

"Not funny, brat."

Wiping a tear of mirth from his eye, he said, "Nah, Kaka-sensei will take care of her-- whoops, I mean, _Commander Kakashi!_ Ha ha, she'll be fine."

Somehow, Tsunade wasn't so convinced.

* * *

Kakashi smiled, crunching the piece of paper into a ball and stuffing it in his pocket. _Very cheeky, Neji_. Well, at least he had his spear back. He had been very reluctant to adopt the spear, as it wasn't really his style, but he had to admit that it came in handy when it was time to hold a zombie in place in order to slice off its head.

Because they were zombies, no matter that Sakura couldn't suspend her disbelief enough to take that explanation seriously. When he killed one, he didn't consider it taking the life of a human by any more than a technicality. Of course, they weren't actually undead, but could they really be considered alive, either?

It was a debate that constantly ran circles around Kakashi. He knew better than to let himself become consumed by such morbid arguments about the morality of his profession, but he did it anyway. He had sold his life to this cause, so he figured that he had earned a little bit of angst-ridden pondering.

Of course, right now he would much rather ponder the situation of the young lady in the hospital wing, but unfortunately, there were zombies to hunt.

Tonight they were staging a fairly large attack. In actuality, the area overrun by Datsuryokusou and then by the zombies was much larger than Neebaru. Neebaru ended at the Sanzu, and only half of it was covered. The full extent of the occupation was probably twenty times that size. It spread all the way up until the Sanzu merged with another river, about a third of a day's travel north. And it fanned out westward, threatening to press against the southern Rain border.

The area was divided into three regions based on the level of the severity of the infestation. The lowest threat was in the southern region, Erushiamu. The plant growth was lighter there, but the region seemed to grow every day. As such, Bases 2 and 3 were located there: Kokitasu and Furegaton. Kokitasu kept the southern border in check. Furegaton secured the easiest crossing spot of the Sanzu and served doubly as the main headquarters and base of medical operations. It was also where Kakashi had taken Sakura.

Next was Asufuderuno, the middle ground. The largest area, it had the thickest growth of scarlet flowers but not an uncontrollable amount of enemies. On the outskirts of this region there were actually a few normal human beings, the rogue ninjas who had dappled too far into forbidden jutsu and created this whole mess to begin with. It was the ultimate goal to reach these people, but so far they had been pretty well protected by their inhuman army. There were also two bases in this region. Base 1 Akeron was on the southwestern edge of the region, and it was this lonely base's job to protect the western edge.

That left Bases 4 and 5. These two bases received the highest concentration of offensive fighters; those most skilled in the particular combat required to face the zombies were sent here. Base 4 Rete was on the northeastern edge of Asufuderuno, and until recently had been the farthest north they could push. But several months ago, they had finally been able to bridge the boundary into the third and most dangerous region, Taratarasu. After weeks of terrible fighting, they had managed to secure a fifth base, Succhikusu. Taratarasu boasted some of the worst conditions in this part of the world. It was heavy marshland, the perfect climate for Grass Country's special brand of monster.

That was where Kakashi was going tonight. His dark clothing allowing him to blend perfectly into the night, he walked up to the metal gate. It encircled the parts of Base 5 that did not have their back to the Sanzu, closing them off from the creatures that roamed the marshes at night. It would have been nice to fight the zombies during the day when they were weakest, but they were impossible to find. Too many men and women had drowned during a daytime search for their hideout, so Kakashi canceled any similar expeditions. He realized then that he was going to have to do this on _their _terms.

He curled his fingers around the thin black pole of the gate. A faint breeze teased him with the promise of relief from this humidity, but it meandered past him without even a pleasant sigh. Even as the days shifted towards autumn the weather here never ceased to be muggy. If they were lucky, sometimes there would be a cool mist.

"Hatake-sama, we're ready to move." Oh, he hated it when they called him that, as if he were some lord over this morbid kingdom. He couldn't see the woman who had spoken, but he already knew what she looked like. Everyone looked the same here-- pale skin wrapped in black that represented their dark gravitas.

_Except for Sakura._

Another man coughed behind him. Sighing, Kakashi released the gate and turned to face his teams. There were dozens of shinobi assembled at the edge of the camp, all dressed in identical black uniforms. "You know the plan," he said simply. His subordinates' grips tightened on their spears. "We only need to take one back alive."

Tonight, they were trying something different. Kakashi was sick and tired of how little was known about the zombies. If they truly wanted to stamp out these things, they needed to pick one apart. Weeks upon weeks had been spent in preparation for this very moment: Sakura had stumbled across their path on the eve of one of the biggest undertakings of Kakashi's four years here.

When he thought about it, her medical expertise would probably be of great help to them... That is, if he could convince her to stay.

"Let's move out." The gatekeeper unlatched the lock, and the teams swiftly left the safety of the base. Kakashi was at their head, leading them into the dark marshes.

There was no avoiding the noise they would cause by running through the wet splotches of ground, but stealth was not their main concern. They wanted to draw out at least one of the zombies-- hopefully they wouldn't attract too many. Of course, with three medical squads and a dozen highly-trained combat units, they were pretty well-prepared.

The night was eerily silent as they penetrated the marshes deeper. Trees cast shadows upon shadows. Moonlight streaked through the breaks in the branches, glinting off the occasional headband. Most of the local wildlife had been killed off by the enemy, who were vicious carnivores. Cannibals, even.

The lack of immediate action was unnerving but expected. The zombies were based somewhere deep in Taratarasu. Kakashi was moving directly towards the estimated base of their operations, though, as it was the general idea to provoke the zombies to come to them.

And then they came crashing through the marshes, unheeding of the ugly splashes they made as they sped blindly towards Kakashi's ensemble. The combat units immediately attacked, swerving towards the oncoming zombies with practiced efficiency. Each and every one of them had sacrificed their lives for this, regardless of the fact that they weren't dead yet.

Traditional shinobi warfare did not work well against these creatures; their bodies were volatile conductors for chakra, and direct contact often backfired. Anyone who touched a zombie with chakra often felt weaker after the encounter. The thick gloves everyone out here was required to wear helped, but it was safest to use wooden weapons and thick boots.

Several units took to the trees so that they could attack the score of monsters with projectiles. Kakashi followed, belatedly slipping up his headband to scan the area. The zombies here didn't seem to have been followed; evidently those in charge were unaware of just how enormous this operation was. Along with the group fighting now, there were several levels of backup ready to bolster the ranks.

His Sharigan found the cluster of zombies irresistible. They had inhuman levels of chakra bursting through their bodies, and Kakashi couldn't imagine how they could sustain that. Perhaps their bodies compensated by shutting down other systems? Could they only live through several weeks before they were worn out and replaced?

There was no time to wonder about that now-- hopefully these questions would be answered, but they had to capture a zombie first. Alive. So far this had been completely out of the question, as none of their sedatives could immobilize one of the zombies for more than a few minutes. The medical staff had been working tirelessly to devise a tranquilizer that would kill any normal human but would hopefully sedate a zombie long enough to bring it back to Furegaton.

Having assessed the situation, it was time for Kakashi to join the fight. He jumped down from the cypress tree, his cloak flapping behind him in a wave of darkness. Landing with a splash, he hit the ground running. One of the men from a combat unit was kicking away a zombie, but unbeknownst to him another was raising its arm to claw at the back of his head.

"_Dynamic Entry_," Kakashi whispered, his Sharingan whirring as it recalled the copied technique. His boot made heavy contact with the zombie's side, pushing it back into a large puddle of water. It scrambled to its feet almost immediately, but Kakashi was ready, his sword drawn and swinging towards the creature's neck. He hacked at it once, but it had moved its head slightly out of the way so he did not sever it completely. His Sharingan could see the chakra stampede towards the gaping gash just as it always did, frantically trying to patch it up so that the zombie could continue to fight.

This was why Kakashi did not consider it a human-- it didn't die like one. And what else defined a mortal man?

It tried to jump on him, but the healing of the wound made it more sluggish and Kakashi was able to dodge so that it stumbled face-first into the mud. He jumped on its back. Jerking violently, it tried to throw him off, but Kakashi had used this tactic many times and was able to ride it out by sticking his spear in the ground for support. Leaning heavily on it with the left side of his body, he used his right hand to plunge his sword through the monster's neck.

Even through the insulation of the wooden sword, he could feel the sparks of chakra that leaked out of the hole he made. Unfortunately, this zombie would not be their specimen, but it had plenty of friends.

And that was how it went for about an hour; they thinned out the ranks until there were only three zombies left, but they were particularly fearsome. Kakashi had never seen them like this-- they must have been the most recent models. Metal weapons simply did not work; the zombies' chakra was electric, deflecting the kunai and shuriken in dangerous explosions of sparks. They were holding them off until the backup arrived-- archers with wooden arrows. It was a little unorthodox, but spectacularly, fantastically, they had trained people in just about every form of attack that existed. Specialized archers from Kokitasu were due any minute.

Until then, they were doing everything in their power to subdue them. Kakashi's throat was raw from shouting orders and fighting in the cool night air. They were on the defensive, but they refused to relent-- retreat wound render the whole thing pointless.

Seven men and two women. It was a staggeringly low level of casualties, at least for Taratarasu, but nine dead was still nine dead. Later in the week, Kakashi would have to plan for the funeral. He always organized them. In fact, it was why they had all taken to wearing black instead of traditional Konoha uniforms; so many people died that it was too tiresome to constantly go between black and green, black and green. Instead they wore black in constant, solemn remembrance of all those who fell victim to these senseless monsters.

"Hatake-sama, the archers!"

Perfect timing, too-- three more zombies had just crashed through the marsh to join the fray. Kakashi barked redundant orders at the archers who already knew exactly what to do. A rain of arrows besieged the zombies. Blinded by the bandages covering their eyes, they swerved stupidly, unable to avoid the barrage. All six of the zombies fell to the ground.

_Why the hell didn't I think of this earlier?_ Kakashi thought angrily. He held up a hand to stop the aerial assault, and the medical teams swooped in like vultures. It may have seemed overkill to have twelve shinobi for six incapacitated monsters, but Kakashi was not taking any chances.

Five of the zombies were decapitated, but the sixth was pierced with the tranquilizing needle. It didn't scream -- they never did -- but just fell limp in the black-swathed arms of the tough medical ninja kneeling in the marshes.

"Okay, we've got him!"

Kakashi nodded, a rare feeling of success blossoming in his chest. "All right, collect the dead and head back!"

They had managed to sedate one, but they weren't out of the woods yet. They had no idea how effective this tranquilizer would be. There was no time to waste.

* * *

**Legend**

_Neebaru_ - the region where Sakura was gathering the plants and kidnapped  
_Datsuryokusou_ - the red plants that drain chakra  
_Shiirerusou_ - the green, grass-like plants that balance Datsuryokusou in the ecosystem and are used in the four-month series of injections  
_Sanzu_ - the nickname of the river along which Kakashi's operations are based; originally named the Kado

Locations in the infested region

_Erushiamu_ - southernmost, lowest threat  
- Base 2 Kokitasu  
- Base 3 Furegaton: Sakura's location, main headquarters, medical base  
_Asufuderuno_ - middle, medium threat  
- Base 1 Akeron  
- Base 4 Rete  
_Taratarasu_ - northernmost, highest threat  
- Base 5 Succhikusu


	3. The Shadow of Olympus

The Shadow of Olympus

* * *

_And so long as she, the goddess, yet beheld earth and starry heaven and the strong-flowing sea where fishes shoal, and the rays of the sun, and still hoped to see her dear mother and the tribes of the eternal gods, so long hope claimed her great heart for all her trouble . . . and the heights of the mountains and the depths of the sea ran with her immortal voice: and her queenly mother heard her._

_- Homeric Hymn to Demeter_

_

* * *

_

A deafening crash jerked Sakura awake. She bolted up in bed, looking wildly around for the source of the noise. Through the metal walls she could hear shouting and banging.

The sound was moving closer. She watched the door warily, but she still flinched when it burst open, bouncing off of the wall with a bang that ushered in a clamorous cacophony. Several shinobi clad in black were ushering forward an ugly, thrashing creature-- Sakura realized with a jolt of dread that it was one of the terrible monsters that had attacked her.

Four different people were holding onto the monster's limbs, yet they were barely able to restrain it. Someone shouted from the back, "Hurry, somebody get another tranquilizer!"

But no one could get through. The narrow aisle between the bed-lined walls was simply too tight. Apparently they were planning on restraining it here in the medical wing, but it was too powerful for them. It was all they could do to hold it steady while it tried to swipe at its captors.

Sakura jumped out of bed. Thankfully, she had traded the cumbersome intravenous medicine for chakra replenishing pills, so she was free to hurry to the back of the room. She was also grateful that they had kept her in her own clothing rather than a hospital gown-- otherwise, they'd all be treated to a nice view of her bottom.

She didn't think it would be too hard to find the tranquilizer, and she was right. The clear liquid sat in several very thick needles, twinkling innocently in the white fluorescent lighting. She grabbed one at random and ran back down the narrow wing. Six men were bending the creature over the end of a bed. It had several fine black arrow tails sticking out of it, but there was hardly any blood staining its sickly bluish skin.

"I've got it!" Sakura called to them; a few people turned to look at her. One of them was Kakashi. He looked to be under incredible stress, but he nodded vigorously at Sakura. "Just inject it with as much as possible, but _not in the heart_!"

Sakura nodded to show she had heard him and advanced towards the shaking bed. The creature was still being held down, but only barely. Fear surged through her body like fire, but the adrenaline racing through her veins chased it away. She raised the needle and then brought it plunging into the creature's thigh.

Blue sparks erupted in muted crackles. The monster jerked terribly, tensing its muscles for a moment before it fell limp. Panting, the shinobi released carefully and let the unconscious creature bend backwards over the edge of the bed. The foot rail dug into its lower back and its ugly feet made puddles on the floor.

"Good work," Kakashi said gruffly. He patted one of the men on the shoulder. "Now we can take it to the examination room..."

While they gathered the creature up to be transported again, Kakashi hopped nimbly over a different bed so that he could get to Sakura. "That was very helpful," he told her. He sounded exhausted. "Good thing you were here, hm?" She expected a crescent-eyed smile to follow, but none came.

Sakura frowned. "Why did you bring one of those things in like that? Doesn't seem like the best idea..."

He looked annoyed, and she wondered if he had grown unused to having his authority questioned. Back in the days of Team 7, he had frequently been teased about the decisions he made, but she supposed that here it wasn't an issue.

"We tranquilized it out in the marshes, but it metabolized the sedative much more quickly than we had estimated. It only started waking up when we got inside Furegaton."

"Furegaton...?"

"It's where we are right now." He glanced over his shoulder. "You'll want to move out of the way."

Kakashi began walking past her. Her mouth was hanging slightly open in indignation at his rudeness. "Kakashi-sensei!" she scolded, briskly catching up to him. She fisted a handful of his cloak, forcing him to stop. He turned to look at her over his shoulder.

"What?" he spat.

Sakura felt a little hurt at his immense irritation. "I just... wanted to help." It had started out strong but ended in a flat quiet.

Remorse flickered in the background of his coal-black eye. "Of course you can help." His voice was still curt, but at least he wasn't glaring at her anymore. "Just follow me."

She became suddenly aware of all of the people waiting to move forward, so she bashfully released Kakashi's cloak and strode after him. They reached the end of the medical wing; Kakashi unlocked a set of metal doors and entered a square room. An examination table stood in the middle like an altar. All sorts of medical accessories were crowded around it, but there was enough room for about half a dozen people.

Sakura pressed herself against the wall, trying to avoid any of said accessories poking into her back while the others filtered in. They laid the sedated monster on the table before flitting to the corners of the room, pulling out files and tools.

She saw Kakashi lean in and whisper something to one of the women. The lines of stress etched into her face jumped up in surprise, and her eyes swiveled to Sakura. Kakashi straightened, and the woman made her way over to Sakura.

"Haruno Sakura!" she beamed. "It's a wonder to have you here! What perfect timing-- we've been wanting someone of your caliber here for a long time."

"Er, thank you!" Sakura hadn't expected that. Apparently her reputation had leaked into this dark corner of Grass Country. Pride bubbled low in her chest. "However, I'm currently very low on chakra..."

The woman waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, that's no matter," she assured her. "Your expertise is still valuable to us. Working with you will be a real pleasure."

She spoke as if this were some long-term deal-- which it wasn't, because as soon as her chakra was better she was taking a one-way trip back home. However, she didn't press the matter now and allowed the woman to guide her over to the creature.

Sakura bent over it quizzically. In the nightmare she had been having before she woke up, this thing had been hunting her, but she saw now that memory had muddled some of its features. It didn't actually have truly blue skin; it was just tinged that way. Its skin was really just a sickly pale hue that looked like it had spent far too much time under the water.

The female medic turned to Kakashi. "Hatake-sama, what is its chakra doing right now?"

_Hatake-sama?_

Kakashi had peered over the woman's shoulder without recognizing anything unusual about the formal address, but he seemed to sense that Sakura was eyeing him incredulously. He slanted a glance her way. When he saw the amusement on her face, pink peeked self-consciously over the edge of his black mask. _Don't laugh at me_, he appeared to be saying. Sakura only smirked.

He sighed, returning to the task at hand. The black tomoe swirled in his Sharingan as he scanned the body. "It's very weak right now," he reported. "It's just a trickle, really... remarkable." He sounded fascinated.

"Why, what was it like before?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi did not look at her when he answered, too engrossed was he in his examination of the sedated creature. "It's chaos. They have an incredible amount of chakra that races through their system constantly. It's like..." He struggled to find the words. "It's like being on a soldier pill, all the time."

Sakura's brow furrowed. Vast, active chakra, and incredible strength, plus their creepy appearance... No doubt this had to do with the experimental jutsu Kakashi had alluded to. "Sounds like the chakra would explain how fast they metabolized the tranquilizer."

A male medic nodded. "Exactly. We've been trying to guess how heavy a dose to use on them, but until now we haven't had a body to work with."

Sakura looked at Kakashi. "I get to help, right?"

Kakashi stepped back from the creature, allowing the medics to close in on it. "There's nothing I would like more." He nodded respectfully at the assembled teams. "Good work today, everyone. Everything went exactly according to plan."

One of the medics laughed hollowly. "We should keep the arrows in mind, eh, commander?"

Kakashi nodded seriously. "Yes. I'll be informing Konoha about this shift in training focus..." He sighed, raking a hand through his hair in an unguarded moment. No one but Sakura seemed to notice. "Good night, everyone."

"Good night," they all murmured, and Kakashi left the room.

One of the medics grinned at Sakura. "Very excited to be working with you on this, Haruno-san. We've heard from the commander how great a medic you are."

This surprised Sakura. Kakashi had mentioned her? Flattery fluttered quietly in her heart, along with something else she didn't care to name. She smiled back at them, albeit a bit nervously. "How very kind of him. I'll be happy to help."

It wouldn't do any harm to help them develop an appropriate sedative while she waited for her chakra stores to recover. She would help them investigate these monsters, and then she would be on her way home.

* * *

A fish wiggled futilely against the current, its translucent lips gasping as it fought.

"Why do you think it's doing that?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know," Lee cheerfully replied. "The fish around here eat weird things. There aren't too many of them left."

Sakura was standing on her tiptoes to peer out of one of the few windows. It was only here because this was where Lee took his breaks, and he needed to be on watch constantly. He was sipping a dark red liquid that stained the edges of his little white teacup. As did everyone here, he wore the dark black cloak. Unique to Lee was the jet black Spandex hugging his figure underneath.

With a sigh, Sakura plopped down next to Lee on the metal bench. "You know, you don't seem to fit the part of ominous ferryman," she teased.

Lee's mouth got small as it always did when he was embarrassed. "I must confess, you are not the first to tell me that, Sakura-san." She wondered if he still had a crush on her. To be painfully honest, she hadn't thought of him that much in the two and a half years since he had left. If romantic feelings had been lingering in her heart, Rock Lee certainly hadn't been at their center.

She swung her legs idly, her sandals dragging across the corrugated metal floor. "Why did you come here, Lee?"

Righteous fire seemed to burn from his owlish black eyes. "Gai-sensei told me that this is the fight of the future!" he exclaimed. "He said it was best to catch on before the flames of youth ceased to lick against my slender frame."

Sakura sincerely wondered if Gai would have given that advice if he'd known how un-youthful this place was. Being here certainly seemed to have drained whatever youthful gaiety Kakashi had once displayed.

"Plus, his eternal rival was here," Lee continued. "A worthy man to follow!"

But that was the strange part. Everyone had agreed at the time that Kakashi was an excellent leader and, while perhaps not suited best to Hokage, would be perfectly apt to deal with the mysterious threat on the Grass Country border. (Not least because he was a bit mysterious himself.) After he had left, though, it was as if everyone had suddenly forgotten. The rumors of war to the south had held everyone's attention much more. In comparison to actual war, the dark whispers of nightmares to the west had counted for little to Konoha.

At least, that's the image that was projected. Those a little more wise to the workings of the village could not fail to notice the suddenly large number of shipments being directed west-- and not just goods. A growing rate of shinobi were sent to the border.

Sakura herself had taken notice when suddenly she wasn't allowed access to projects in the hospital. In fact, Sakura had been conspicuously excluded. To be fair she had a lot of different projects on her plate, but she felt that this was more than just professional. Even Naruto remained markedly tight-lipped when it came up. At least Tsunade would listen to her, as Tsunade had been denied similar access. However, Tsunade never seemed to join her in the angry rant against the system, taking the uncharacteristic stance that perhaps it didn't matter too much. Tsunade could have thrown her weight around if she needed to-- who would refuse a belligerent former Hokage? Yet for some reason she remained content to stay detached from some of the most important operations in the hospital, always citing her "retirement" as her only excuse.

Despite her suspicions, Sakura never pressed the issue. She was satisfied with her job at the hospital. Still, details of Kakashi's job in the west were kept definitely _sub rosa._ There was always the sense that there was a big secret-- One that Sakura in particular was not meant to be privy to. It was the great pink elephant that lumbered behind Sakura wherever she went, poking its trunk out whenever the time came for the monthly shipment to the Grass border.

Or rather, a big black elephant, if the color of Kakashi's clothes meant anything.

Lee peered at her curiously. "But what brings you here, Sakura-san?" he chirped.

Shaken out of her thoughts, she shrugged. "I was looking for Datsuryokusou."

"The flowers of death!" Lee cried with a dramatic shiver. "Were you sent here from Konoha?"

Sakura nodded. Keep it simple-- it wouldn't do to bore Lee with the details of her struggle against the tight-lipped bureaucracy that was dead-set against letting her come out this way.

"I'm waiting now until my chakra recovers. Until then, I'm helping the medical team here investigate these 'zombies'." She regarded Lee with curiosity. "Do you fight them?"

"Sometimes," Lee answered. "I'm actually really good at fighting them! I helped establish this base, but those things..." She saw the ghost of a shudder in his suddenly darkened eyes. "Well, I just prefer it here, is all! Plus, whenever they try to cross the river, I'm the first line of defense!" He puffed out his chest.

They laughed. It felt oddly out of place here, but Lee was a comfortable connection to home.

"So you say you're researching them?" Lee asked. "They just captured one last night, didn't they? They'd been planning it for months."

"Really? I'm glad they got one, then." She frowned. "Say, Lee, what do you know about them?"

An exaggerated furrow of his brow accompanied a long, thoughtful pause. "Well," he said slowly, "they can use a lot of chakra at once. So much, actually, that it's dangerous to directly touch them."

Excited, Sakura leaned forward. "I know what you're talking about! When I was fighting one and I touched it, there were these blue sparks everywhere!" She wiggled her fingers for effect.

Lee gasped and nodded rapidly. "Yes, yes, that's it! It's got everyone here baffled. In _fact_," he said, leaning forward conspiratorially, "Kakashi-sensei once tried to use Chidori on one, and he nearly died!"

Sakura sat back. "Wow," she said quietly. What a mystery. Last night, they had focused on taking detailed notes on the creature's outward appearance. Further investigation would resume later today. Sakura had unfortunately not been able to glean much about the inner workings of the creature from her preliminary evaluation, but she hoped that in the coming days some of her questions would be answered.

There was something uncanny about the sheer power they possessed. If only she could put her finger on it! There was something about the way they moved and fought, and how they could just keep going even when they were wounded...

Actually, it reminded her of Lee.

Sakura's eyes shot wide open. "Oh my God, Lee! I've got it!"

He frowned in confusion. "Got... what?"

But she was already bounding past him, her sandals clacking against the metal floor as she jogged through the hallway. Inside the complex itself there were no more windows-- just stretches of rough metal walls in a claustrophobic maze of passageways. Before she even realized that she had no idea where she was going, Kakashi emerged suddenly from a bisecting hall and she skidded to avoid collision.

He paused in his brisk walk. "Sakura?"

"Kakashi!" she breathed. "I was just looking for you! I figured out something!"

Angling his torso so that he was facing her properly, he frowned. "Yes?"

"What if they're activating the gates?"

"Gates?"

She impatiently brushed away an errant strand of hair. "You know, the tenketsu?"

Comprehension dawned in his eye, but it was edged with doubt. "You think they're keeping them open?"

Sakura shrugged. For the first time since she had nearly knocked him over she became aware of their surroundings. Her gaze darted self-consciously over her shoulder, as if expecting disapproving sniffs and stares.

"Maybe. I haven't gotten a very good chance to study them."

Kakashi frowned; she could tell that he was thinking. "Well, that would explain a lot of things..." he said quietly. "Still, that would be pretty hard to maintain, wouldn't it? It's not easy on the body."

"Well, how long do they live?" Adrenaline buzzed through her veins. She could sense that Kakashi was equally excited about this possible breakthrough so early in their investigation.

Kakashi gave her a wry smile through his mask. "We typically don't give them a chance to make full use of their lifespan."

"Well, it's a good thing you caught one alive then!" Sakura grinned.

"It's a good thing you were here," Kakashi responded. "Trust you to come up with that right away..." He started walking again, indicating with a slight swing of the head that she should follow. She kept pace on his left, watching as she could practically see the thoughts whirring in his head.

"They're very complicated creatures," he continued. His entire face was blocked from her; the only sign that he was more than a mask was the movement of his lips against the cloth as he spoke. "I know that you haven't had a long time to look at them so far, but don't worry-- we should have enough information to get you started. You see, not only do they fight with a lot of chakra, but they also..."

Suddenly, Sakura wasn't listening. A weight had settled in her throat, and it was slowly oozing down past her heart to drip into a melancholy puddle in her stomach. Kakashi's words became muffled to her ears. She heard him speaking, but not the words he spoke now-- rather, those he had spoken four years ago. Quietly, when they were alone.

_Things won't be like this when we go back home._

_There are people there, and expectations, and rules._

_How do you expect me to stay?_

Kakashi had stopped talking. He was looking at her with a mix of concern and apprehension. "Sakura?"

She couldn't look at him. Her swallow squeezed around the lump in her throat. "Kakashi, I'm... not staying."

There was an immediate shift. She chanced a glance above his chin and saw that a shade had been drawn over his eye. The air got thicker around him, like it was pressing her in. It was clear that he had gotten very uncomfortable very quickly. While she recognized his defense mechanism of trying to school his features, she could see that he was genuinely displeased.

"It's nothing personal," she said, a little too quickly. "But I belong in Konoha, with Tsunade."

He blinked. "But your talents would much better be used here," he said bluntly. "I have far better uses for your skills than the Konoha hospital does."

"I'm a medic," she pointed out. "Not a scientist."

He cocked a pale brow. "Really? I was under the impression you were taking on plenty of research."

"What makes you think that?" she said coolly.

"Well, I assumed that's why you came out here to gather Datsuryokusou. Aren't you involved in plants?"

She shifted her weight uncomfortably to the other foot. "Well, technically, I wasn't really supposed to come out here-- some bureaucratic bullshit about not having the right shade of purple for my security clearance."

"So you're definitely a scientist then."

Sakura scowled. "Not _your _scientist," she reminded him. "Konoha's."

"And who do you think I work for?"

He was getting unusually short with her. Last night he had been that way as well, but she had chalked it up to his understandably high level of stress at the time. But now, he seemed even worse.

Kakashi sighed irritably, scratching at the back of his neck. He often did that when he was feeling awkward. "I just think that your talents would suit this project well. You can look inside these creatures like no one else can, and you know more about the chakra system and the body than anyone here." He slipped his hands into his pockets. Despite the frustration fraying the edges of his tone, his face was blank. "I am not a superstitious man, Sakura, but I find it hard to believe that you arriving here when we need you most is pure coincidence. It's practically a divine intervention."

Sakura rolled her eyes angrily. "I already told you, I'm not staying here. I have obligations in Konoha! I can't just run away from there to come here and hunt freaks with you!"

His expression remained as smooth as ever. She had no idea if he was hurt by what she'd said or if he'd read into the unintentional subtext.

"Working here would not be abandoning your duties," he said evenly.

Annoyance flashed across her green eyes. "Listen here," she ground out, jabbing an angry finger towards his chest. "I'll review the information and even help the investigations until my chakra has returned, but then I am _going home._"

She turned on her heel and stormed down the hall.

* * *

"It's no big deal!"

"Of _course _it's a big deal, you idiot! It's been a whole damn week!"

One week. Sakura was only supposed to be gone four days, five days maximum. But now it had been an entire week, and for the third day in a row Tsunade was pacing her old office, wearing familiar tracks in the wooden floor.

"Maybe it was raining," Naruto suggested desperately. It was probably the seventieth time he had said that. "Or maybe she made friends with her guides and wanted to spend an extra night? She's been cooped up in the village for a long time now..."

Tsunade shook her head. "It's not like Sakura," she argued. "She would have reported in if she were going to be late."

"Not if she figured you were a normal person and wouldn't freak out like this!" Naruto's exasperation was clear.

"Aren't you the least bit worried?" Tsunade snapped. "What if something bad happened? What if Sakura's in trouble?"

Uncertainty flickered in his bright blue eyes. "Well, the territory she was going to might have been just the teensiest bit dangerous..." he admitted.

Tsunade stopped dead. "Dangerous? You sent her somewhere _dangerous_?"

Wherever Sakura had gone could not have been as dangerous as the glare Tsunade was throwing his way. He winced in preparation for his own next words.

"I, uh... can't tell you any more than that."

The air hung terribly silent. Moonlight shone through the wide open window that framed Naruto's silhouette, illuminating the anger behind Tsunade's honey-colored eyes.

"_What do you mean you can't tell me?_" she bellowed. Her fist came down hard on the desk. Naruto was visibly shaking.

"Y-y-you don't have security clearance for that area!" he squeaked. "You've never cared before-- I mean, you actually told me, _I don't want to think about wherever you put that damn Hatake!_"

He just _had _to mention that name, didn't he? "Gee, I wonder why?" The false sweetness in her voice scraped against her own ears. "Maybe it had something to do with _Sakura specifically_?"

Naruto looked confused. But of course he didn't understand. He couldn't.

Sweating in buckets, he made a wobbly attempt at a conciliatory smile. "Don't worry," he said weakly. "She might not even be there, since she didn't check in."

Something snapped. Tsunade gripped the edges of the desk so hard that they splintered underneath her fingers. She did not register any pain, only snarling fiercely at Naruto.

"What do you mean, _she didn't check in?_"

Fear slipped past Naruto's trembling façade of toughness. "Gah, Tsunade, I'm as worried as you are. She checked in at Bordertown on the second day but we haven't heard from her since."

_Bordertown, eh?_ Tsunade's lips smoothed into a painted frown. "What? Why didn't you _tell_ me that?"

"I didn't want to worry you..."

She let out a derisive snort before storming out. Taken by surprise, Naruto inadvertently allowed her a head start. She bounded down the stairs at an inhuman pace, sending such chakra to her feet that she crunched through several wooden steps. In less than a minute she pushed open the wooden doors at the bottom of the tower.

It was the middle of the night. Lamps winked at her from where they hung on low-swinging wires from shop to shop. Summer was dwindling, but lights were still left up from the O-bon festival just the week before.

She ran blindly all the way to the great gates of the city. The fledgling autumn chill bit at Tsunade's throat as her dark cloaked whipped behind her in the wind.

Naruto caught up to her as she hesitated at the gate. "Calm down!" he called to her. "I know you're worried, but it's okay, we can send out a search party!"

Tsunade rounded on him. "Why aren't _you_ worried?"

"Of course I'm worried!" he snapped. "We'll send out a search party!"

Tsunade nodded fiercely. "And I'll be leading it!"

But Naruto shook his head emphatically. "No way, baa-chan! You're needed in the village! The experimental medical herb program needs your supervision."

"You think I care about that at a time like this?"

"I don't care if you care!" The wind blew particularly harshly, sending the spikes of his hair up in a ghostly wave before they softly settled. "I'm Hokage, and you're the former Hokage, and there's no way either of us are leaving the village. What happens if while you're searching someone captures you-- suddenly we've got a ransom situation on our hands, and that's the last thing anyone needs right now!"

"Fine," she conceded, albeit very grudgingly. "That's fine. I'll stay in the village."

She began to climb one of the guard towers.

"Wha-- What are you doing?" Naruto cried, gripping his hair in frustration. "Hey, baa-chan, get down here!"

"Piss off!" Tsunade hopped through the small window and settled in the tower. The towers were a recent addition to the Konoha wall when it had been built after Pain's invasion. The chair there was uncomfortable, as no one wanted a sleeping sentry, but it would have to do. She entwined her fingers in the sign of the tiger and blew a small fire jutsu at the torch.

"Baa-chan..." Naruto whined from the ground.

The torch flickered into life.

"I told you to get over it!" she barked. "Now let me watch the damn road!"

And she sat back in her chair and did just that.


	4. Demeter

Demeter

* * *

_Bitter pain seized her heart, and she rent the covering upon her divine hair with her dear hands: her dark cloak she cast down from both her shoulders and sped, like a wild-bird, over the firm land and yielding sea, seeking her child._

_- Homeric Hymn to Demeter_

_

* * *

_

Kakashi sat holed up in his office, poring over reports. His eye ached from the strain of so much small print. The fluorescent lights were a constant source of irritation, but he plowed on, squinting to make out the latest report from Base 5.

_Last attack did not go well. Lost seventeen more men and twelve women. Need reinforcements. New mutation of monster?_

He released a heavy sigh. Great. Twenty-nine more dead. Apparently, this new breed of zombie was ready to make Kakashi's camp pay dearly for the live specimen they had captured. He felt slightly nauseous, pushing the report away and reaching for the latest scroll from Konoha. Hopefully the new trainees due to come in soon would be well qualified; with the blow dealt by this most recent attack, the new recruits would be sent straight into Taratarasu. Rubbing his eye, he skimmed for the important parts.

_Training modified to accommodate archery request . . . injections went successfully . . . Kiba to bring in new flock this week._

It was a running joke, referring to the new recruits as "Kiba's flock". Like Kakashi's ninken, Kiba's dogs had a much higher tolerance for Datsuryokusou than humans. That and his amazing tracking abilities had landed him the position of Konoha's resident messenger. He could hunt down anyone who needed contacting, and while he usually went back and forth between Konoha and the southern sea, it was also his job to take the new recruits to the Sanzu. He was nicknamed "the shepherd", and the new recruits "the black sheep".

It was a double entendre; not only did they wear all black, but they were trained in isolation from other shinobi and carried a certain stigma, despite the importance of their job. Most shinobi were trained and sent to fight the fledgling war in the south, but Kakashi got some of the best young fighters for his cause. Not only this, but he got considerable funding even during a time of unrest. For this they had jokingly named him "The Rich One".

But that's all it was-- a joke. He was underfunded and understaffed. Communication was limited; he would have preferred if Konoha was not busying itself with political conflict in the south. He felt that this was a little more important, but he had no say. River Country and Tea Country had been getting involved in some conflicts over use of waters that were technically Suna's anyway. Rogue shinobi had gotten involved, and it had escalated into a messy war. The whole thing was extremely complicated and probably would never amount to much anyway, but it took up much more of Konoha's attention than strange happenings to the west.

Truthfully, it should have been Kakashi out there. He was better qualified than Sasuke, with much more wartime experience. There was also the minor detail that Kakashi had never betrayed the village. However, when he had returned to Konoha after fighting in the war, he had been eager to get away from there. The reason was simple-- it was the same reason that _Kakashi _was the real black sheep of Konoha.

Sakura.

They had spent a year at least on the field together, fighting the war against Akatsuki. It hadn't been easy. Akatsuki had convinced smaller villages to finally stand up against the big ones; they did an excellent job of making marginalized countries feel important. Despite the overwhelming force of the alliance of the Five Great Shinobi countries, the war had been difficult.

During most of the war, Naruto had been off training with Killer Bee in Lightning Country. Sasuke had been fighting for the enemy. That left Kakashi and Sakura together on the front lines, with plenty of time left to grow closer than any of the other Team 7 members.

Too close.

It had happened very quickly, as these things often did. After building a friendly rapport for so long, one battle charged with adrenaline had made them trip over the thick line separating teammates from lovers. They had stumbled for one short week before Naruto emerged from his training to face Sasuke and win him over. The war was over within the month.

While the rest of the country rejoiced, Kakashi only wanted to escape. He had spent two years longing for home, but now he only wanted to get as far away as possible. To make matters worse, Tsunade found out. When Naruto had tackled Sakura in a bone-crushing hug, Kakashi stood quietly behind her: Tsunade only needed to take one look at him. Whether or not she had figured out that it was consummated, Kakashi could only guess-- he hadn't waited to find out. He had been out of there before the first firework cracked into life above the victory celebrations.

But now, Sakura had come to him. Her arrival had been completely out of the blue. He hadn't been sure how to act around her, so he had just tried to pretend that nothing had ever happened. She had gone along with it at first, but she had gotten angry at his insistence that she stay here. Since then, she had been a little frigid with him. It had been nearly a week now since her arrival; she was getting her chakra back, but he had told her not to use it. Even though she knew that just as well as he did, she had gotten annoyed that he was telling her what to do.

She had been studying the zombie they'd captured a little. Of more immediate importance, though, she had been working closely with their sedatives to develop them so that they were longer-lasting. After all, without her chakra to probe the creature's body, drugs were her next most proficient area of expertise.

Kakashi flicked the switch on the wall in irritation, relieved as the room fell into darkness. Metal scraped on metal as he pushed his chair out of the way. He had been possessed with the sudden need to check on Sakura. He got nervous when she was away from him for too long, especially imagining her bending over that horrid body...

For once in no dire rush to go anywhere, Kakashi nonetheless walked quickly through the monotonous metal corridors. By now, he knew this base just as well as he knew Konoha. It didn't take him long at all to locate Sakura in the examination room.

He knocked lightly on the door. "Come in," Sakura called distractedly. Kakashi gently pushed the door open and entered the room, closing it quietly behind him.

Sakura was leaning over the body just as he had imagined. He was a little annoyed that she had been left alone, but she seemed unharmed. She had tied her pink hair back as best she could given its length, constantly tucking stray strands behind her ear. Although she wore the same outfit as Tsunade (minus the 'Legendary Sucker' logo), he noticed that she didn't fill in the bust as obscenely as Tsunade did.

Not that he found her unattractive...

Pushing that thought smoothly aside, he stepped forward. "How's it going?" he asked.

She pursed her lips when she heard his voice. _Still angry,_ he noted. "It's really hard to study this thing..." Her tone suggested that she was unwilling to speak with him, but she couldn't hold back her fascination. "Its metabolism is crazy."

Kakashi pushed his headband up, revealing his Sharingan. After taking a moment to adjust to the shift in perception, he cast his gaze upon the unconscious zombie. He had done this a million times, but he still couldn't resist another look in the hope that this time, what he saw would make more sense. Compared to on the battlefield, the zombie's chakra was subdued, but it was still more unstable than any normal human's. It shot erratically through its system, confused and slowed by the sedatives but still struggling to be active.

"They're incredibly difficult to kill," Kakashi said to the silence. "Their chakra is seemingly endless. Decapitation is usually the soundest option, as they wear heavy armor protecting their torsos. Plus, direct contact with a zombie is dangerous."

"Zombie?" Sakura repeated.

Ah... he had forgotten that Sakura considered that a joke. "It's the best way to describe them," he told her, a little darkly. "Here, perceptions of what is dead get a little foggy."

"But they're not really _undead_," she argued skeptically.

Kakashi shrugged. "Go ahead, try to kill it."

"Um... why would I do that?" Sakura rolled her eyes. "Isn't the whole point that you want it alive?"

"It won't matter," Kakashi assured her blandly. "You won't be able to kill it."

"Are you that stupid?" She scowled. "Lee told me how long you've been planning to get one of these alive-- why would you jeopardize everything like that?"

"How are you supposed to study this creature if you refuse to acknowledge it for what it is?" Kakashi countered.

"Because _zombies don't exist_."

Kakashi pulled a kunai from his leg holster. His patience with her cool incredulity was waning fast. "Would you like me to prove it to you?"

"Kakashi, don't--"

He stabbed it in the heart.

Sakura shrieked as the zombie's entire body jolted. Sparks danced across the blade as the body shook on the table, and Kakashi could feel his fingers tingle as the lights in the room flickered. Sakura grabbed his arm.

Kakashi watched the chakra pump furiously towards the creature's heart, putting forth impossible effort to regenerate the tissue. This was how it fixed itself: Somehow, a critical hit was only a drawback, and one stab was never enough to kill it--

"Kakashi, do something!" Sakura's voice was unnaturally shrill. That snapped Kakashi out of his entranced observation and he quickly grabbed a tranquilizer from a shelf within reach. Banking on the hard plastic to serve as an insulator, he brought the needle down hard on the zombie's shoulder. It shuttered, the frenzied chakra fleeing to the heart as the rest of the body fell back limply. The zombie twitched for several seconds as its chakra saved its heart, and then it was still.

Kakashi wrenched the needle out of the body, holding it like a scepter in his hands. He glanced down, realizing that Sakura was no longer holding onto his arm. Instead, she was standing a foot away from him, absolutely livid.

"What the hell is _wrong_ with you? Was that really necessary?" She pushed past him and stormed out of the room.

Momentarily stunned, the adrenaline quickly wore off. He hurriedly stowed the needle back on the shelf and jogged after Sakura, catching up to her easily just outside the medical wing.

"Sakura!" He reached for her arm, but she wrenched it away from him.

"Don't touch me!" she shouted. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea what sort of position you just put me in?"

"I--"

"I don't have any chakra, idiot! How _dare _you put me in a situation like that?" Angry tears were gathering at the corners of her eyes.

He shook his head vigorously. "No, Sakura, it couldn't have hurt you--"

"You don't get it, do you?" she snapped. "You have no idea what it's like to feel so-- so-- Gah, I give up!" She crossed her arms tightly across her chest, turning her body away from him. "I want to go home," she said thickly.

Kakashi felt terrible. Embarrassment and immediate regret threatened to turn his stomach over. _Why the hell did I even do that? _he thought angrily. Of course he had made her feel vulnerable-- why would he do that? He never did things like that.

A heavy sigh left him feeling deflated. "Well, you can't go home quite yet," he said wearily.

He only caught one more glimpse of her watery green eyes before she had moved roughly past him.

Shoving down his headband, he leaned against the wall for support. He covered his face with a hand, his own stupidity punching him in the gut.

_What was I thinking?_ he thought again. He had made their relationship plunge from bad to worse. And all because he had been frustrated that she didn't understand this place.

He felt sick. Had this place really changed him so much? The answer was clear to him now: Yes, it _had _changed him. He was too morbid now. After all, what kind of sicko stabbed a monster in front of a defenseless kunoichi? Without realizing it, he had become a different man. Whatever respect for him Sakura had been clinging to was surely lost now.

_The rich one, _they called him, but he had never felt so robbed in his life.

* * *

Tsunade raked a hand through her hair. She looked with distaste at the blond strands that tangled around her fingers; she hadn't exactly showered recently...

"Godaime-sama?" A man in a labcoat emerged from behind the door. Tsunade straightened up and stood from where she had been slouching in a cheap chair against the wall.

"I'm so sorry for the wait," the man continued. Tsunade, however, wasn't interested in pleasantries.

"I don't care," she said bluntly. "Just tell me where Sakura is."

The man very obviously avoided eye contact. He nervously flipped a page on his clipboard. "Er, Godaime-sama, while you have a high enough clearance to access any information you want on the functioning of Datsuryokusou and its uses in our facilities, I'm afraid you don't..."

The rest came out as a mumble. Tsunade took a step closer.

"What was that?" she whispered dangerously.

The man coughed. "Well, ah... you don't have the information-- I mean, uh, the clearance to access the information about--"

"Spill it!"

He swallowed and quietly told his clipboard that it didn't have the correct clearance to be informed of Sakura's location.

Tsunade sent her fist into the wall just shy of his head. "I practically built this hospital!" she snarled. "And yet you won't tell me where one medic has gone? Is that really how you treat your former Hokage?"

The poor man was shaking violently, but Tsunade had no sympathy. "I-- I-- I'm sorry, Godaime-sama, but I c-c-can't give you that sort of information! You yourself decided your level of clearance on that... you specifically did not want to be told the location of Datsuryokusou, so it has been set up that you simply _can't_!"

Oh yes... She faintly remembered that. Something about wanting to make sure there was no possible way she could track Kakashi down and turn his testicles into festival lanterns... But it was different now. Sakura was probably with him at this moment! Even though Tsunade didn't know exactly where Kakashi's base was, she knew that he had gone west to Grass Country and that wherever Datsuryokusou was, he was bound to be there too. In fact, she may have personally seen to it that Kakashi received no notification whatsoever that Sakura would be in the area...

But this had gone beyond burning a letter or two. If Sakura was staying there, it was serious. What if she didn't want to stay but he was holding her there? Or what if she wanted to stay?

Tsunade translated her growing rage and fear into a sadistic smile. "Surely you can't cut through some red tape for your former Hokage?"

Sweat was rolling down this man's face in buckets. "I'm afraid I don't--"

"You should be afraid!" she barked. "My best medic--" (she almost said friend) "--is MIA and you don't have the balls to break a few rules and tell me where she is!"

Suddenly too disgusted to keep talking, she pulled her fist out of the wall. She could hear the man's sigh of relief as she turned on her heel and strode down the hallway.

It was getting darker earlier now, and the shafts of orange light cast the hallway in Halloween stripes as Tsunade walked. The hospital was pretty quiet this afternoon. Tsunade's heels clicked until she stopped in front of a white door. She glanced over each shoulder once before turning the knob and pushing it open.

She was greeted by a messy collection of overflowing filing cabinets. Impatiently, she peered at the peeling labels on the drawers, following the letters of the alphabet around the room until she found 'S'. Jerking the drawer open, she rifled through, eventually pulling out a manila folder with the label 'security clearance'.

"I can't believe it's come to this..." she muttered, tugging out a form. Black print on the top spelled out _Advancement Application_. She had to hold it close to her face to read in the dim light. After about thirty seconds of squinting, she ripped it up in frustration.

"I don't need this!" She kicked the 'S' drawer shut and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

Tsunade didn't slow down as she tore through the hallway and down the steps. The nerve of this place! She was the former Hokage-- she shouldn't have to put up with this! So what if she had initially denied herself a certain level of security clearance when setting up her position at the hospital? She had a right to change her mind whenever she damn well pleased!

"Uh-- Tsunade-sama?"

Livid, she snapped her head towards the unfortunate medic shaking beside her. "What?" she spat venomously.

The mousy little woman gulped, gripping her clipboard for dear life. "You're ahm, uh, needed downstairs in the--"

"I was already there today! For four hours!" Four hours fewer than her usual shift, but she had been a little preoccupied recently.

"Um..." The woman's gaze flitted nervously, but Tsunade wasn't in the mood to wait. She let out a small noise of dismissal and continued on the warpath.

The hospital doors banged open as she strode through them into the early autumn evening. The village was incredibly tranquil on the coattails of the afternoon lull, with most people taking a break after a long day or before an equally long night.

Tsunade's anger nearly put cracks in the earth where she stepped. She was hardly in the mood to put up with Naruto's infuriating adherence to the rules on this matter, but she had no other choice-- where could she go? Maybe this time she could bully Naruto into giving her what she needed.

The ANBU guards moved out of the way as she reached the winding steps on the outside of Hokage Tower. "Godaime-sama," they murmured in unison, but she did not hear them. Her loud footsteps carried her to the outside of Naruto's office. She didn't bother to knock, instead choosing to barge in on a snoring Naruto.

"Wake up, brat!" She slammed the door shut, then opened it and re-slammed it for emphasis. Naruto woke with a start, rubbing his eyes.

"Eh, baa-chan, was that really necessary...?"

Her fist came down on the table. "I'll be the one deciding what is and isn't necessary here," she hissed.

Naruto's back stiffened. "Eh, baa-chan, I haven't even gotten a chance to fix the desk since the last time you did that!" He laughed nervously.

"Tough." Tsunade lifted her hand and crossed her arms underneath her ample bust. Naruto's eyes swiveled instinctively toward her accentuated cleavage, but then he remembered himself and met her honey-colored glare.

"I know what you want," he said wearily. "And guess what? I sent out a search party today."

"Why did you wait until today?"

"Just calm down! I sent Kiba last night to get a head start," Naruto explained. "He's gonna scope things out."

Her frown didn't budge. "It would be easier if you just _told_ me where she was. Then _I_ could go."

"And _I've_ already _told_ you that that wouldn't work! You can't leave the village." He mustered up a glare to challenge her own. "Besides, you already know that it's in Grass Country."

Tsunade sighed. "Yeah, and you mentioned Bordertown earlier, but that still doesn't give me much..."

Naruto looked shocked. "I said that?" Tsunade nodded, and Naruto pressed his palms to his eyes. "Gah...! Well, that's already more than I should've told you!" He seemed quite annoyed at himself for letting that slip.

"It still doesn't tell me much," she snapped. "Plenty of people check in at Bordertown before crossing the border. She could be anywhere in that damn country! And yet, the former Hokage of Konoha isn't allowed to know _where_."

"It's not like we know the exact place!" Naruto protested. "If we knew where Sakura was, she'd be home!"

"Maybe." Tsunade started pacing again. "I could help you if you just told me where it was, you know. I could disguise myself. Nobody would need to know it was me! Maybe I could release my jutsu so that I could look like an old-- ah, a woman more advanced in years than my current appearance suggests!"

Naruto shook his head again. "No..."

Tsunade rounded on him. "Do you have any idea what I'm going through right now?" she seethed. "No, of course you don't. You can't. You know _nothing _about Sakura's situation!"

"What do you mean, situation?" Naruto squinted in confusion. "She was just supposed to get Datsuryokusou..."

Once again, Tsunade had to remind herself that Naruto didn't know. "I know things about Sakura that could help," she said vaguely.

"You know something that could help? Well then, tell me!"

"You won't tell _me _anything, brat!"

"But this is what _you_ wanted!" Naruto shouted. "How many times do I have to remind you? This was your choice, baa-chan-- you specifically requested a lower security clearance so that you would have an excuse not to deal with these sorts of things anymore! And all just because you were annoyed that Kakashi-sensei didn't end up with the Hokage gig!"

Tsuande blinked. "You think _that's _what it's about?" she said incredulously.

Naruto looked faintly surprised at himself. "Well... yeah. I thought you were pissed at Kakashi because he let me become Hokage, so you didn't want to have to talk to him."

She sighed heavily. "Of course that's not it. I gave you my grandfather's necklace for a reason. I actually prefer you as Hokage," she finished quietly.

Naruto blew out a relieved sigh. "Phew, I was worried about that for a while!" He looked a little bashful.

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade steered the conversation back to Sakura. "So have you been in contact with anyone out in Sakura's region?" _Like Kakashi?_

"Well, we just sent Kiba out," Naruto said, leaning back in his chair. "He should be in contact with Sun Camp soon."

Sun Camp was the nickname for Hyuuga Neji's camp on the border. Not only did the strategic position give his Byakugan plenty of land to roam, but it was a bit of a pun on the Hyuuga family name, which meant "toward the sun". It was a bit of a sore spot for Neji, who was the butt of many jokes about his own "sunny disposition".

Tsunade frowned. Neji was better than nothing, but it wasn't really who she was interested in...

"What about Kakashi?"

Naruto began to spin idly in his chair, slowly rotating away from Tsunade until he was talking to the window. "If Neji doesn't give him anything, Kiba is planning on going to Kakashi's camp from there," he answered. There was a short pause; he put out his foot so that he stayed with his back to Tsunade.

"Say... since we've got this whole Sakura thing under control, maybe you can start putting more of your regular hours in?"

But Tsunade would hear none of this. She clicked her tongue in annoyance; clearly she had no further use for Naruto tonight.

"Goodbye, Hokage-sama," she drawled, not bothering to hide the mockery in her tone. Naruto didn't respond, and she left the office with the bang of the door behind her.

Once she had made a show about leaving the building in a huff, she stopped outside the wooden doors, hesitating. She knew there was work waiting for her at the hospital, but she was too tired and angry to go back there and deal with it. Plus, she really had to use the bathroom. Her decision made, she turned left and headed towards her apartment building.

As former Hokage, she had been given more than adequate living accommodations. Her apartment was nice, but it had been pretty much collecting dust for the past week. Days had been spent trying to concentrate at the hospital, while at night she kept up her stubborn vigil on the village wall.

After reaching her home and performing her ablutions, she sat down on the edge of her bed, brushing off the thin layer of dust. Melancholy making her slouch, she reached sullenly for the framed picture of Sakura she kept on her nightstand.

Even Naruto couldn't pretend he wasn't worried now. And while he may not have known about Kakashi and Sakura's past relationship, he did know how dangerous Kakashi's job was. They both hoped that Sakura was nowhere near there-- just for different reasons.

Truthfully, Tsunade could only guess at the extent their relationship had reached. Sakura had barely breathed a word about Kakashi in the four years since he had left. The only concrete evidence Tsunade had was the way Kakashi had looked when Naruto hugged Sakura after the war. He hadn't said anything to insinuate that his relationship with his subordinate was anything but platonic, but one tortured gaze had been enough to damn him. He had been especially evasive when Tsunade tried to track him down after that, and with all of the things that needed to be taken care of at the end of the war, she had scarcely exchanged ten words with him. There had been the meeting where Konoha's next course of action was decided, and then he had gone.

Tsunade had planned on pursuing this course of intrigue with Sakura, but when the poor girl's mother had died she couldn't bring herself to do so. She figured that if there had been anything there, Sakura was moving on. Granted, she hadn't dated, but Tsunade had attributed that to her vigorous devotion to her work.

Now, that seemed naïve. Because what if Sakura had gone west on purpose? No one had ever told her exactly where Kakashi had gone, but she was a smart girl. She paid attention to the running of things in Konoha. She could very well have figured out Kakashi's general location, and what if she had sought him out? Had that been why she fought so hard for this mission?

Tsunade felt a little queasy. Overcome with worry, she brushed her finger across the glass of the photograph before setting it aside. She stood with a catlike stretch, making her way over to the little cabinet she kept in the corner. Disabling the protective seals, she swung the door open only to find it nearly empty.

"Dammit, Shizune!" she hissed. Apparently, her newest codes had been cracked by that wily assistant of hers. The only bottle left of her precious stash was one she had left untouched for years. Presumably, Shizune had rightfully assumed that Tsunade was unlikely to resort to that bottle.

It had been a gift from Kakashi, years ago. A luxurious thin bottle of pomegranate wine, she had originally been saving it for the end of the war. Now, however, it was tainted with his memory, yet she couldn't bring herself to throw it away so she let it sit.

"Fine," she grumbled. "Fine! We'll have it your way, then!" The bottle remained impassive. She scowled at it, kicking the door of her little cabinet shut. "I don't need you, anyway! I'm swearing it off! That's right-- I won't take another _sip _of alcohol until Sakura comes home!"

She abruptly left her apartment. Pushing her chakra to her feet, she ran quickly through the streets of Konoha. Within minutes her particular spot on the village wall was already in sight.

"Evening, Godaime-sama," one sentry called. Tsunade ignored him and walked up the wall, slipping in through the window of the tower.

As she was settling into the uncomfortable wooden chair, a man poked his head through the window.

"What do you want, Shiranui?" Even in her exhaustion she managed to sound hostile.

She could just picture Genma grinning around the senbon in his mouth. "You look terrible," he said cheerfully. "Want a beer?"

"Actually, I just swore it off," she answered pleasantly. "So thanks but no thanks."

"A sober Tsunade?" Genma pretended to sound aghast. "What _is _this world coming to?"

"Can it, Shiranui! I didn't mock you when you tried to quit."

"Didn't you?" Genma pondered idly. "Anyway, that was different. I was trying to quit chewing on my senbon."

"At which you've evidently failed," Tsunade said dryly.

Genma tutted. "Quitting drinking cold turkey can be bad for you, you know."

"Who do you think is the medic here?" Tsunade snapped. "Now if you're not going to do anything useful, go away."

She spared him a glare over her shoulder. He was pouting, but the effect was ruined by the sharp needle jutting out from between his lips.

"I bet it's tough," he said, the senbon bouncing as he spoke. "But wanna know a little trick that helped me get through my senbon withdrawal?"

Tsunade gave a very put-upon sigh. "What, Genma."

He fished around in his hip pouch until he pulled out a flimsy yellow object. Tsunade squinted at it.

"What is that, Shiranui?" she asked suspiciously.

"Eyes not as good as they used to be?" He held out the object, which Tsunade realized was a sheaf of grain. "This helped me get through my withdrawal. Not sure if it'll help though."

"I don't need your cheek or your pity!" Tsunade snapped, but she snatched the grain from his hand anyway. "Now, why don't you go run off to bed."

Genma grinned and gave the best bow he could while still poking through the window. "Always glad to be of service, Godaime-sama." Still smirking, he pulled out of the tower, leaving her in peace.

"Stupid kid," she grumbled. She sighed and, for lack of a better thing to do with it, stuck the grain between her teeth. Leaning back in her chair, she tossed a twig onto the torch and watched the road.


	5. Hermes

Hermes

* * *

_And strong Argeiphontes [Hermes] drew near and said: `Dark-haired Aides, ruler over the departed, father Zeus bids me bring noble Persephone forth from Erebos unto the gods, that her mother may see her with her eyes and cease from her dread anger . . . For she keeps fearful anger and does not consort with the gods, but sits aloof in her fragrant temple, dwelling in the rocky hold of Eleusis.'_

_So he said. And Aidoneus, ruler over the dead, smiled grimly and obeyed the behest of Zeus the king._

_- Homeric Hymn to Demeter_

_

* * *

_

"Hyuuga-taichou?"

Neji looked up from the maps strewn across his desk. They were incredibly detailed crisscrosses of trade routes and bridges, decorated with small wooden figurines that marked the movement of important parties. His back ached from being bent over them for so long. "What is it?" he said shortly.

The messenger standing in the doorway cleared his throat. "Inuzuka Kiba is here for--"

"Heyyy, Neji! What's up?"

Kiba strolled through the door as if he owned it, directing a vague, good-natured smile at the assembled solemn faces. "Man, everyone always looks so _grim _here! Wouldn't think you were the Sun Camp. Not as bad as the Underworld Camp, though."

Neji sighed in exasperation. "It's not called the Underworld Camp," he corrected, but Kiba wasn't listening. He was approaching the desk, frowning in momentary thought before moving one of the wooden pieces an inch to the left. "Checkmate!" he joked, but his laughter died when he saw that no one else was smiling.

"I said, what is it, Kiba," Neji said flatly. If Kiba were relaxed enough to loaf about the strategy room like this, then it was nothing urgent.

"Ah, message from Konoha!"

"I could have figured that out for myself." Neji rolled his eyes before dismissing the gathered advisers. They left in a grumbling crowd; Kiba eyed them as they left before letting his gaze swing back to Neji.

"I think the average age in this room just plummeted by one thousand," Kiba snickered. He let out a bark of a laugh before plopping down in Neji's own chair. His boots made a dull _thunk _as he put his feet up on the table, knocking a few wooden figurines askew.

"Whoops," he snorted. Neji looked down at him in disdain. Most of Kiba's face was shielded by the wide-brimmed straw hat tilted over his eyes, but Neji could see a tooth glint in his wolfish smile.

Releasing a very put-upon sigh, Neji crossed his arms. "Just deliver your message. I have work to do."

Kiba tipped his head back, eyes crossed as he grinned up at Neji. Neji frowned at him over his nose. "Actually, I've got a riddle for you," he drawled.

Neji closed his eyes and counted to four. He was a naturally impatient person, and Kiba was fraying his last nerve. "Okay," he sighed, resigned.

Stroking his chin with his thumb, Kiba smirked. "Where does one pink blossom hide in a whole mess of red flowers?"

_Oh, God... _Neji rubbed at his temple. "I don't know," he snapped. "And I'm not in the mood for guessing. Why don't you just tell me the answer so then you can actually do your damn job?"

Kiba stood, frowning at Neji. "Actually, I was hoping _you_ could tell me!" he snapped back, jabbing a finger at Neji's chest. Neji's eyes flickered open in irritation. "Sakura's gone missing, and Naruto was hoping you'd know where she is!"

That was not what Neji had been expecting. He blinked at Kiba, considering his answer before speaking. Missing, huh? It appeared that someone hadn't bothered to mention to Konoha where he had taken its precious cherry blossom...

"I know where he is."

Kiba scratched his cheek. "Wow, you've been out here a long time, haven't you? Sakura's a _girl_, Hyuuga-- ever seen one?"

Neji shook his head as if warding off a fly. "Sorry, I meant 'she'." A little Freudian slip when his mind had turned towards Kakashi.

Kiba's shoulders sagged. "Phew, that's a relief! Naruto will be so relieved."

The frown deepened on Neji's face. "Why, has he been worried?"

Shrugging, Kiba answered, "Well, I dunno about him -- I guess he's worried -- but Tsunade's been going batshit."

"Tsunade?" Neji had forgotten about that aspect. Perhaps Kakashi was not the only one guilty for failing to mention Sakura's location... If Neji knew as much about Tsunade as he thought he did, she would surely be wreaking havoc. It all could have been avoided if he hadn't been naïve enough to assume that Kakashi would do the responsible thing.

Kiba nodded. "She's hardly doing any of her work at the hospital, and she spends every night cooped up in one of the guard towers."

"A guard tower?" Neji's brow furrowed. "What's she doing there?"

"Watching the road," Kiba shrugged. "Obviously she can't just ditch the village, but apparently she wants to be the first one to see Sakura when she gets home... Or I dunno, something like that." He yawned widely, scratching at his ear in an uncanny resemblance to a dog. "Anyway, there's a search party out for her, too, but they sent me ahead to ask you what you knew. She was out here for Datsuryokusou, after all."

Neji stepped away from Kiba and sat down in his chair. Fingers interlocking in a contemplative steeple on the table, he revealed, "Sakura is with Kakashi."

"What?!" Kiba itched the side of his face in agitated confusion. "Why didn't he tell anybody that?"

"I don't know," Neji lied. "Why don't you go ask him personally?"

Kiba gave a loud moan of discontent. "No way, I hate going to his camp. I have to wear that dumb mask." Shiirerusou injections were a fairly big commitment. Since Kiba went regularly in and out of Datsuryokusou territory, it would be impractical for him to get one. Instead, he had to don the dreaded gas mask-- and he made sure everyone understood just how much he hated that.

"Tough." Neji returned the wooden figurine Kiba had moved to its proper place. "That's your job, isn't it? To be the messenger. Besides, if you tell Kakashi that the Hokage demands Sakura's return, there's nothing he can do about it."

Kiba complained a bit more, but Neji wasn't listening. Because Neji and Kakashi's work was so closely related, Neji was one of the few who had deduced the true reason for Kakashi's "exile". He had no idea if Kakashi and Sakura had ever actually had a relationship, but Neji was nothing if not perceptive. Kakashi's guilt had been easily identified. It had only taken a bit of veiled prodding to determine its source.

"Fine," Kiba conceded with a begrudging pout. "I'll go straight to Kakashi-sensei's camp. You should send a letter to Tsunade... will you send one to him to?"

Neji hesitated. Should he? It would be the polite thing to do-- but then, telling Konoha that Sakura was at his camp would have been the polite thing to do, yet Kakashi hadn't extended that courtesy himself. Perhaps it was best to let Kakashi be taken by surprise. Otherwise, Neji wasn't sure that Kakashi wouldn't do something drastic...

_I'm sorry, Kakashi_, he thought solemnly while Kiba rummaged through a closet for gas masks. _But you can't keep her there forever._

_

* * *

_

Sakura sat curled up on the couch, a dark shawl draped over her shoulders. She had managed to track down the only sofa in the complex. It was far from luxurious, but it would do.

She stared dully at the metal walls. This place was impossibly dreary; even the few windows that were in Lee's break room revealed only the gloomy landscape. The Sanzu was a dark, angry river. Most of the local wildlife had been killed off. There was only the wide expanse of scarlet flowers, with the occasional green patches of Shiiresusou peppered here and there.

Sorely, she wanted to go home. She knew that Tsunade was probably worried sick about her-- she could count on never getting another field assignment. However, on an intellectual level, Sakura was still terribly intrigued by these 'zombies'. Even though her encounter with Kakashi earlier that day had gone awfully, it had not drowned out her insatiable thirst for knowledge.

So far, she had been a great help in developing longer-lasting tranquilizers. The other medics hesitated to kill their specimen -- they had sacrificed so much to bring it here alive -- but Sakura figured they'd be ready for that soon. Her mind whirred excitedly with the possibilities of future examination, especially when she got her chakra back in full.

However, when she got her chakra back, she was supposed to go home...

The door creaked. Startled, she sat up. She immediately began preparing a passable excuse for her presence here, but all explanations died in her throat when she recognized the man who had opened the door.

Still clad entirely in black, Kakashi was balancing a small tin tray. "I brought you tea," he said as he stepped inside. Leaving the door slightly ajar, he sat down in a dark velvet chair across from Sakura. As far as Sakura could tell, that chair and this couch were the only decent furniture here. Perhaps it was fitting that the commander of the place got the nice chair. _A dark throne for a dark man_, Sakura thought dryly.

She glared at him unflinchingly as he set the tray delicately on an endtable. There was a cup of the same dark tea Lee had been sipping the other day. The fruit that sat beside it was a deep red color.

"Sorry if you don't like pomegranates," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's the nicest thing we have here..."

Kakashi liked pomegranates, if she remembered correctly. Yes, she could recall him bemoaning the lack of any decent fruit on the front lines, back when they had been fighting together in the war...

"I'm surprised they don't wither at your touch," Sakura retorted.

She didn't find his attempt to cheer her up endearing. He looked slightly crestfallen at her frigidity, but more than anything she saw resignation in his eye.

"Just thought you'd like something a little sweeter," he said in a weak stab at amiability.

Sakura's eyes thinned into narrow green slits. "I don't want your pity," she spat. The atmosphere in Furegaton did not make her especially inclined towards forgiveness. She hated how crabby this place made her feel-- the unfamiliarity set her on edge. While she knew that no one here disliked her, the cool and reserved demeanor of the soldiers made her feel as though she was stuck in enemy territory. She was still irritated at Kakashi for his uncharacteristic behavior earlier... but despite that, she had to admit that his presence made things here bearable.

Kakashi sighed. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely. Shaking his head softly, he continued, "I don't know what I was thinking..."

Sakura gave him a cold shrug. "You've changed, that's all."

There was a moment of chilly silence. Kakashi sat still as a statue in his velvet throne, which served to enhance his dark demeanor. Finally, he spoke slowly. "This place is... Well, four years here makes an impact on a person. Any person."

"Why did you never come home?" Sakura asked abruptly. The question had bubbled forth with only her vague permission. She thought she already knew the answer, but she wanted to know what he would say.

Kakashi shook his head. "I can't." He hesitated before elaborating. "The Shiirerusou vaccine has a serious withdrawal for the body. It's messy... there's lots of supplementary medicines to be taken with it. When we release people for a holiday back home, they deal with it, but I'm the commander... Even if I went home, I couldn't stay long enough for it to be worth it. Besides..." His unfocused gaze slid unseeingly to the wall. "I feel very personally responsible for this fight now. It's grown to be a part of me."

Sakura was taken aback at how candid he was being. She frowned, saying simply, "I don't like that. This place disturbs me. I don't like that it's your life now..."

She drew her knees closer to her chest. Kakashi was frowning, too, like his mind was a million miles away.

The man sitting in front of her was so much different than the one she used to know. The old Kakashi, her sensei, lounged all around Konoha, usually settling in a shady spot where he could comfortably read his book. He had cracked dry jokes and ruffled her hair every now and then. But this Hatake Kakashi sat upright in his chair, his body tense with worry and his shoulders bowed with the weight of his work. His tone was anything but playful and he was constantly dogged by some unpleasant shadow. The happy crease of his eye had not made an appearance.

"You're... darker now," Sakura told him.

His frown deepened. The crow's feet at the corner of his eye were faintly more pronounced now. "... I know," he said, with the air of one admitting an uncomfortable truth. "Part of it is that I'm not used to being around you anymore-- I'm just surrounded by people here for the fight. I feel like I've forgotten part of myself. But when you came back..." He cut himself off with a sigh. "I just got carried away."

Sakura figured that he was referring to the earlier incident with the zombie. She swallowed. "Why did you come here?"

There was a long pause before he said quietly, "I think you know why."

The couch groaned as Sakura leaned forward, a frown pulling on her lips. "You didn't have to--"

"Didn't have to leave?" Kakashi shook his head. "No, I had to leave before things got out of hand."

"You could've told me," she said thickly.

His gaze jumped to her briefly before swinging down to sit firmly on her shoulder. "No, I told you I'd have to leave--"

"You didn't just have to disappear like that, though," she interrupted.

Kakashi's shifted in his chair, crossing one leg loosely over the other so that his foot dangled over his knee. Trouble brewed in his charcoal eye. "I had thought it would be for the best, but..."

"But?" she said sharply.

Visibly he hesitated in indecision before giving a slight jerk of the head, as if telling himself 'no'. His clothes rustled against the fabric of the chair as he stood up. The harsh white of the fluorescent beams on the ceiling cast the frown behind his mask in sharp relief. Concern poked through his uncharacteristically uneven emotional mask. "You should probably rest..." he began.

Still clutching the shawl around her, Sakura rose from the couch. Crossing the distance between them with two swift steps, she stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his masked lips.

When she pulled away, she could not resist glancing up at his face to see his reaction. Her own heart was beating a staccato tattoo against her breast. It had been an entirely impulsive decision, and she was not convinced it had been the right one.

Kakashi blinked twice, nonplussed. "Y-you can help yourself to the tea," he stammered, and then he left the room.

* * *

A few birds chirped obliviously as Tsunade hurried up the stairs. Naruto had called her in early that morning, and she had ripped through the city with the sort of urgency that only a worried mother could accomplish. Now, frightened aides scrambled out of her way, and she did not slow down until she had barreled through the doors of Naruto's office.

"What's the news?" she panted, closing the door hard. "Tell me!"

Naruto wore a large grin. "She's okay!" he crowed, his jubilation clear. "Sakura's with Kakashi!"

The brief relief Tsunade had felt was swamped by a sudden punch of dread. _No!_ This was exactly what she had feared-- she had been expecting the news, but it was painful to have it confirmed.

On the one hand she knew she should be relieved that Sakura had not fallen into the hands of some rogue nin. However, that scenario may have been easier to deal with... because there was no chance that Sakura would _want _to stay with any true assailants.

Kakashi, on the other hand...

Tsunade swallowed. "Tell them to send her home." For Naruto's sake, she worked very hard to restrain her anger.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked. "Well, we just got a message from Neji this morning, and he told us that she's been with Kakashi for a little while now." He scratched at the meager hairs under his chin. "And if Kakashi-sensei has her, she probably needed to stay--"

"He does not _have her_," Tsunade snapped. "Now you send them a message back right now and tell Kiba to go get her back!"

Naruto held his hands up in a gesture of placation. "Okay, okay! Baa-chan, I don't know why you're acting like this-- of course Sakura will be coming home! We just have to--"

But Tsunade didn't wait to hear what they just had to do. She turned so sharply on her heel that her stiletto scraped a small indentation into the wooden floor, leaving the room in a huff accentuated by the billowing of her green coat.

Between Hokage Tower and her apartment, everything was just a red blur. Her anger clouded all of her thoughts, attempting to drown out the alarming sense of worry turning her stomach. When she got to her apartment, she kicked open the door and headed straight for her nearly empty wine cabinet.

The thin red bottle was slinking around in the back just as she had left it, smirking at her through the dust. _I've won,_ it seemed to whisper in Kakashi's lackadaisical tones.

Tsunade grabbed the bottle by its skinny neck. Face contorted in rage, she let out an enraged cry, raised the bottle above her head, and smashed it to the floor. It shattered in an explosion of red as the deep maroon of the wine bled across the floorboards. Sharp pieces of rose tinted glass twinkled in the morning light that streamed through the cracks in the window blinds.

* * *

Base 5 was not doing well. Succhikusu had been attacked again by the zombies. Their angry horde was somehow even tougher than before, almost completely impervious to metal weapons and possessing unheard of speed and strength. The shinobi stationed at Base 5 had barely been able to fend them off.

Now, Kakashi was facing an ever-rising body count coupled with a practically supernatural army. The tension was palpable. Every little piece of friction crackled in the air, skinning down everyone's nerves until they were worn painfully thin. A heightened sense of urgency pervaded every action and conversation, while fear curled quietly in every stomach.

Because of the emergency situation, Kakashi had no time to contemplate what had transpired with Sakura. The torturous dance of guilty love would have been a welcome respite from his duties, but he could not indulge in personal affairs now-- his attention was twisted in the grip of these horrible zombies.

Kakashi looked up from his desk as a woman strode in. Her pale fingers were clamped around the edges of a scroll, and she crossed the room briskly before depositing it in front of him.

"These are the updated logistics on the creatures," she said tightly. Deepening his permanent frown, Kakashi unrolled the parchment and scanned its contents. Inky marks scratched out numbers and sketches and descriptions.

After memorizing the information with his Sharingan, he rolled the scroll back up with a snap and handed it back to her. "Everything is slightly atypical of what we already know," he said thoughtfully. "I don't think there's any question that they've... evolved." He sighed, scraping his chair back as he stood. The woman stepped out of the way as he walked around his desk to approach the large map pinned to the wall. It was shaded in many different colors, with fluid black lines delineating different regions and routes in the area. The mess of markings and symbols was nearly indecipherable, but Kakashi knew it by heart.

He rocked on the balls of his feet as he came to a stop in front of the map. His hands slipped into his familiar pockets. "However, we can only focus on so many things at a time. I think that the development of greatest importance is their heightened aggression. It's unlike them to attack us so frequently and in such great numbers..." He gave another short sigh. "We'll have to--"

"Well, if it isn't the Rich One!"

Disoriented by the interruption, Kakashi turned to the source of the noise. A man stood framed in the doorway, clothed in a simple gray robe and tall, laced boots. He wore a straw hat with a wide brim that was angled down over his face. One could have easily mistaken him for a simple farmer were it not for his rust-colored gas mask.

Kakashi scratched the back of his neck. "Uh... why are you here?" The next shipment wasn't due for another few days; it would be very convenient if Kiba had spontaneously decided to arrive early with the new recruits just when they were needed most. "Did you bring in the latest--"

"Flock?" laughed the shepherd. "No, I actually came here to deliver a _personal _message to one Hatake Kakashi, courtesy of the Hokage!"

Kakashi's gaze flickered to the woman still standing near his desk. "Thank you, Koroto-san," he said curtly. "You are dismissed." The woman gave a short bow before hurrying out of the room. No doubt she had many important things to be doing, just like everyone else.

Including Kakashi. "What is it?" he said warily. It wasn't often that he received any sort of personal communication from Konoha. There was only the occasional message that Gai managed to sneak in, but Naruto?

Kiba crossed his arms. "You've been keeping Sakura here," he stated bluntly.

It felt like a punch to the gut. So that's how they saw it, huh? Kakashi as the captor and Sakura as the victim. His eye narrowed in annoyance. "Sakura has been recuperating from chakra loss," he retorted. "We have the materials here to treat that, naturally, so she has been staying here until she's recovered."

The messenger in the doorway tilted his head to the side. By now, Kakashi was used to being spoken to by ghoulish metal faces, but it was still slightly off-putting. "Why didn't you tell anyone, though? They've been worried sick."

Kakashi's brow furrowed. "Sakura never mentioned that she was expected back promptly." Granted, one could argue that the most responsible thing would have been to report her presence anyway, but he had chosen to feign ignorance on that matter. Now, it seemed, that was coming back to bite him.

Kiba's laughter was like a raucous bark. "Well, Tsunade certainly seems to be acting that way!"

Tsunade... Oh, no.

"She's... upset?" A slight wince in his voice betrayed Kakashi's anxiety. He had never breathed a word to Tsunade about his... _secret_, but one look had said it all. Why else would he have made such haste to get out of Konoha? He had wanted to avoid exactly the sort of mess he had just walked into.

"Upset!?" Kiba repeated excitedly. "She's practically shut down the whole city!"

Kakashi raised an incredulous eyebrow, but on the inside he quaked with fear. "I think you're exaggerating," he said. Hopefully it didn't show in his voice that he was half-trying to convince himself.

"Uh, well, maybe a little," Kiba admitted quickly, "but she's really pissed! Mainly it's her work at the hospital-- she's hardly been doing anything. Mostly she just stomps around Konoha, and at nights she holes up in the guard tower."

"The guard tower?" Kakashi said weakly. "What is she doing, holding some sort of vigil?"

"I don't know, man!" Kiba moved his hand as if to scratch his ear, sighing in aggravation when his fingernails met metal. "Wow, I really hate these masks," he muttered. "Anyway, all I know is that Tsunade is about ready to come out here and murder you. I waited to come here until she sent a message back to me at Sun Camp, and it was from Naruto but there were lots of angry scratched-out words in her handwriting." He began to tick items off on his fingers as he spoke. "I could make out things like 'bastard', 'degenerate', 'outcast', 'pervert', and then some long thing about tying your testicles to a flying--"

"I get it," Kakashi interjected. There was a cold edge to his tone. "I'll tell Sakura, okay? She's almost done. Recovering, that is."

Kiba nodded in approval. "Good! Neji has contacted the search party already, so they should be arriving here shortly." He flashed Kakashi a thumbs up; it was easy to envision his toothy grin. "I'm gonna go hang out in my usual spot! You got anything fruit around here?"

"Pomegranates."

"That's too bad. I'm craving a nice yellow apple myself." Taking up a jaunty whistle, he strolled out of the room, thumbs sticking out of his pockets.

Once he was definitely gone, Kakashi let out a quiet groan. This was the last thing he needed. Was it too much to ask to have Sakura here for just a little while? To be a constant for him in this time of utter chaos?

He nearly snorted. Things had to be pretty bad if his volatile relationship with his former student was his _constant_.

In all seriousness, however, this couldn't have come at a worse time. Perhaps he had omitted Sakura's presence from his last report, but it hadn't seemed imperative at the time. If it were really so vital for Sakura's whereabouts to be known, wouldn't Sakura have mentioned that to him? Unless she had assumed that he would just do that automatically... But no, knowing Sakura, she would have brought it up.

Really, it was just Tsunade overreacting. Given her status, though, her overreactions merited more attention than most-- and when it came to Sakura, Tsunade's word outweighed Kakashi's by far.

Of course, Sakura's word trumped everything, but he had a feeling that even someone as strong-willed as Sakura would give in to Tsunade. Because whatever confusing intimacy Kakashi and Sakura shared, surely it would pale in comparison to her bond with Tsunade. Kakashi had caught snatches of conversation that hinted at the depth to which their relationship had developed, and he doubted that he could compare. It was by far the easier choice, to return to Konoha. It would be best for Sakura to leave quiet old Kakashi behind to deal with his dark demons in the wilderness.


	6. Persephone

Persephone

* * *

_… but if you have tasted food, you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there to dwell a third part of the seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the other deathless gods._

_- Homeric Hymn to Demeter_

_

* * *

_

The medic smiled at Sakura. "You're recovered!" she exclaimed. Gathering up her equipment, she elaborated, "Your chakra will be a little sensitive for a while, so I would be careful, but it is definitely safe to use it now!"

"Great!" Sakura beamed in relief. It was good to feel like herself again, especially in a place as disorienting as this. The sensation of her chakra running its natural course through her body was refreshing. No longer did she have to worry about feeling so powerless.

Of course, with her chakra back, it meant it was time to start heading home...

A door opened. As a reflex Sakura glanced over to check out who had entered, but she did a double take when she realized it was Kakashi. Stress curved his masked lips in a hard frown. He moved deftly through the narrow aisle between the beds, approaching Sakura and the medic.

Sakura attributed the solemnity of his countenance to the recent attack on Base 5. She had been lucky enough to find an unoccupied medic to help measure her chakra levels, because everyone in the camp was rushing from duty to duty. No one had told Sakura the details, but she gathered that it was unexpected and therefore utter chaos.

Seeing Kakashi sent a flutter of uncertain emotion through her heart. She hadn't seen Kakashi since he had made his unceremonious exit the day before. Their kiss yesterday had been impromptu and it was unclear where they stood with each other.

Kakashi came to a stop in front of Sakura's bed. "I'd like to talk in private," he said curtly, his face betraying no emotion. However, a certain unpleasantness hung about his shoulders, and the dullness in his eye suggested he was resigned to doing something he'd rather not.

Sakura automatically looked to the medic for permission. However, the woman had already begun walking away, and Sakura remembered that she had her chakra back. She was free now.

She stepped off the bed, only reaching Kakashi's shoulder when she stood. Without saying anything to her he turned away and began walking out the way he came. She followed.

At first she was just curious and a little nervous, but the longer they walked in chilly silence, the greater her anxiety grew. Nothing in his demeanor indicated that the subject of their private conversation would be pleasant. Was he leading her to his office to call off their relationship for good? To impress upon her for the second time that they were getting carried away with their emotions, and no good could come of it?

By the time they reached his office, she was just as tense as he was. He held the door open for her in a gesture of politeness, but it was too stony-faced to be anything other than a platitude. The temperature seemed to drop as she crossed the threshold into his office. He closed the door quietly behind her. She didn't turn to look at him but stood several paces in with her back turned. They had put up their guards, and the invisible shields seemed to form an impenetrable barrier between them. Sakura had been allowing herself to feel a small bit of carefully undefined excitement in the past day, but now it was doused by their frostiness.

Kakashi passed her on his way to his desk, but instead of taking a seat he turned to face her, back pressed against the wood. Neither of them were at ease enough to sit. She wore a frown to match his own as they met each other's gaze.

Sakura was content to wait until he spoke. He had set a definite tone, but it was possible that he didn't realize how hostile he appeared. Whatever the mood, though, she was certain he had come here to discuss their relationship. What else could have solicited a private conversation with an atmosphere so intense?

Scrutinizing her with his lonely black eye, he finally spoke. "You never mentioned that people would come searching for you."

Oh yeah... This was _Kakashi_ she was talking about. He never brought up the mushy stuff. She was dealing with a man who had an easier time cutting a man's heart out than trying to talk about his own. Now she felt foolish for expecting him to want to talk about anything so personal.

"Searching for me?" Truthfully, she hadn't considered it. Something about the way he said it made her feel cold.

Kakashi nodded. "Kiba came today. He said that a search party is on its way here... Apparently, Tsunade's been throwing a fit about you."

Sakura's heart jumped to her throat. Tsunade... Sakura had figured that she would be worried, but not _that _worried. She narrowed her eyes. "You didn't tell her I was here?"

"I didn't think it was necessary," he said lightly, and for the first time he averted his eye. "You never mentioned it..."

"Well, I thought it went without saying!"

He slid an incredulous glance her way. "Really," he said flatly.

His lack of emotion was disturbing. It wasn't uncharacteristic of him to mute his feelings, but there was something so dull and deflated about him now. Perhaps he was weighed down by what had transpired between himself and Sakura?

But no, she was being vain. No doubt his mind was almost completely occupied with thoughts of the recent attack, and he had to wearily squeeze in room to consider her.

Her mouth twitched in annoyance. "Well, I don't know!" she exclaimed, suddenly flustered. "I guess I didn't think of it." That was sort of a lie. More accurately, she hadn't _let _herself think of it.

Kakashi didn't really look convinced. "I think this one may be on both of us." His voice was dry. It might have been attempt at humor, but neither of them were in the mood to smile. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he often did when exasperated or uncomfortable. "Well, regardless, Tsunade knows where you are now, and she wants you back."

Again, there was something about his tone. It was as if Kakashi had been keeping her prisoner here, and there was a battle over it between Kakashi and Tsunade. She felt a little like the child pulled between its mother and the goblin until it snapped into a mess of straw.

Sakura swallowed. "When are they coming?"

Shrugging, Kakashi answered, "Probably soon. Kiba is already here, so they should be here by tomorrow." He made a small effort to make his voice more pleasant than before, but it only sounded strained. The tension that had settled in the room was apparently wearing him down much faster than it was Sakura.

"And... you're okay with that?" The question had stumbled, tripping in a moment of hesitancy but tumbling out all the same.

Surprise flickered in Kakashi's eye, but he quickly stamped it out with indifference. "It doesn't matter what I want," he said stiffly. "If you're going, you're going."

His answer surprised her. She had expected something noncommittal or dismissive, but "it doesn't matter what I want"? That implied that he wanted something other than Sakura's departure.

She crossed her arms. "So you want something? What do you want?" she demanded.

It was difficult to read a man's face based off of one eye, but Sakura could see Kakashi's moment of realization that he had slipped up. "I don't want anything," he snapped, taking her aback again.

"I doubt that," she scoffed, but inside, her heart was racing. This small revelation could mean so many things, but he was clearly trying to deny whatever it was.

Kakashi gave a tight sigh. "Well, you're going home no matter what, aren't you?" he said evenly. "So that's that. They'll be taking you home tomorrow."

Apparently, he wasn't going to budge on this matter. And why would he? Sakura had given every indication so far that she couldn't wait to get out of here... Except when she kissed him.

She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Of course she wanted to go home-- this place was creepy and dark and everything was unfamiliar. Even Lee and Kakashi, her two anchors to home, were made something different by the darkness of the marshes. Granted, Lee hadn't changed _too_ much, but there was a marked difference in Kakashi that she couldn't ignore. However... on a professional level she still felt that she could do good work here. She had only just gotten her chakra back, so if she stayed, she would be able to conduct a full study on the zombies. The ability to probe the chakra system with one's own chakra was a rare one, and to do it with Sakura's level of precision was a treasure. The project was unlikely to get another chance at medical talent like hers-- or at least not until the endless war in the south came to a close.

And then there were her personal feelings to consider...

Kakashi pushed himself off the desk. Without looking at her, he walked over to a large map pinned on the wall. He stopped close in front of it, tilting his head up to regard it fully.

"You may leave," he said.

Sakura bristled. First he ignored everything that had ever happened between them, and then he had the gall to talk to her like she was below him? She wasn't just another one of his black-clad drones. Fuming, she stomped over to his side.

"Don't talk to me that way," she spat. "Did it ever occur to you that I might not want to leave?"

She was standing to his right, glaring up at his impassive mask. His head stayed fixed in place; she could see his dark gray eye boring into the same spot on the map. She doubted that he was actually seeing it.

At length he said slowly, "You made it pretty plain that you would like nothing better."

"Well, things might have changed." She waited for his response. Nothing. Boldly she continued, "Or did you miss the part where I kissed you?"

His glance slanted her way. A cloud had passed over his eye, leaving it murky and unfathomable. Beneath his mask, she could make out the outline of his pursed lips.

He held that gaze for a terrible minute. Sakura waited with bated breath. Finally, after agonizing silence, he blinked twice, his eye roaming, lost. "I..." He began to say something but faltered when Sakura grabbed his bicep. Twisting his torso around so that he was forced to face her, she used her other hand to cup his cheek as she kissed him. Annoyed by the taste of cotton in her mouth, she pulled back for a second and roughly tugged down his mask, returning for a naked kiss.

She could taste his sharp intake of breath. Ending the kiss, she pulled her head slightly back. A heartbeat passed before she kissed him again, and this time, he kissed back.

It was as if four years had never happened. Suddenly they were back in a gritty tent with the winds of Earth Country howling around them. She entwined her fingers in the silver hairs on the back of his neck while his arms wrapped around her, bringing their bodies closer. Heat jumped between them as the kiss deepened. His tongue was so familiar against hers. Caught up in the moment, she let out a small moan.

Something came to a jerking halt. Kakashi pulled away from the kiss. She looked up at him in confusion as the heat of the desire ebbed away, leaving her feeling a little cold. It was a small shock to see his mask bunched around his neck; it had been so long since she had seen his face. His lips were just the slightest bit swollen, and his eye was darker than before.

He swallowed. His gaze quickly flickered away from her, but there was no mistaking what she saw there.

Fear.

"We can't do this," he mumbled, stepping away from her. Numb, she watched him fumble with his mask to pull it back up. "Not if you're leaving."

An unpleasant cold settled in her stomach. She felt a little nauseous. "Kakashi--"

His eye swiveled sharply to hers. "We can't do this," he repeated, firmly this time. "You're leaving. I'm staying. It's simple."

It was anything but. She should have felt cross with him for deciding that for her, but the sick feeling was starting to overwhelm her. "I don't..."

"You don't belong here."

Her eyes darted to him in shock, but his face was turned so that she could not see his eye. Just a barrier of impenetrable black.

Abruptly, she turned on her heel and left. She might have muttered something to him, she didn't know, she just kept walking. Each clack of her sandals against the metal floor reiterated the distance between him, prodding the lump in her throat until she wanted to cry.

* * *

Kakashi collapsed into his chair. He had never felt so tired or drained. Rubbing the back of his neck, his fingers paused momentarily to linger in the hair she had been clutching just moments before. Angrily he brought his hand away, bringing it down to drum his fingers on the table.

Agitated now, he reached for a blank scroll. He put a pen to it, but as he started to write he noticed that it was out of ink. Letting out a _tch_ of annoyance, he shook the pen, furiously drawing angry circles on the corner of the paper until it nearly tore. Finally the ink began to flow, and he started to write his letter.

_Dear Tsunade,_

_Sakura is safe and sound. She will be coming home tomorrow. I apologize for not notifying you of her presence here sooner; things have been very busy here. Unfortunately the operation has not been going very well lately._

_Anyway, that's not what you care about right now. Sakura was accosted by one of the zombies (forgive me; I know you're skeptical of that term, but it's the easiest way to describe them). Luckily, I had been tracking that same zombie and was able to defeat it. Sakura had passed out in a bed of Datsuryokusou, so her prolonged stay here was due to chakra depletion. However, she has just recovered today and will be returning to Konoha with the search party once they arrive._

There. Nice and brief. No need to mention any of the turbulent emotions or heated kisses that were racing through Kakashi's mind. It would be best to let this secret die once and for all.

At least, that was his official standpoint. In reality, Kakashi felt a little dead inside. For four years he had done a pretty good job of suppressing his feelings for Sakura, but this impromptu visit had ruined everything. Now he would have to begin again the painful process of systematically shutting down his emotions.

He signed the letter with empty sincerity. Hesitating for a moment, he put it to the side. _I'll deal with that later,_ he assured himself. For now, he needed to be thrown whole-heartedly back into the fray. This had served as a pretty big distraction, and whereas before he had been wishing he could trade his duties for dealing with the Sakura Question, now he wanted desperately to push it to the back of his mind. That was the safest place: There, his soft, warm feelings could hide untainted by the crippling cruelty of reality.

* * *

Sakura pushed through the metal doors of the examination room. She found two male medics huddled around the body, scribbling down notes onto scrolls. Both looked up at her entrance, their strained expressions breaking into smiles when they recognized her.

"Haruno-san!" one practically chirped. "How is your recovery going?"

In spite of her unhappiness, Sakura couldn't help a smile. "My chakra's back," she told them.

Jubilation bloomed on their faces as they exchanged excited looks. "So that means you can give your full examination?" the second asked her.

Sakura hesitated. Should she really get started on this when she was in such a mood? When she would be leaving the next day? On the other hand... she had been secretly dying to look into this creature's system, eager to verify what Kakashi had described.

Kakashi-- But no, she smoothly swept all thoughts of him aside. This examination would be a welcome distraction.

They hastily moved out of her way as she stepped up to the table. It felt incredibly invigorating to stand above a specimen (however grotesque) and summon her chakra to her hands. It tickled her fingers in a familiar hum, and she was smiling serenely as she held her hands above the creature's chest.

Of course, this was the disgusting part... she actually had to _touch _it. Suppressing a shiver, she touched her finger pads to the creature's sickly flesh. Small sparks danced across her fingertips. Closing her eyes in concentration she allowed her chakra to pass through its skin and into its body.

As the creature was currently tranquilized, its chakra was muted. However, she could still feel its erratic pulse of chakra struggling to overcome the sedative. She sent her green chakra gently through the chakra network, exploring the creature's body.

She paused in her ministrations. _Wait a minute..._ There was something foreign here. She probed a little deeper, trying to isolate a substance separate from the creature's chakra. It was... chakra, but different than the monster's own. However, it was also oddly familiar...

Her fingers trembled slightly. Suddenly, she was feeling very light-headed...

Snapping open her eyes, she removed her hands from its chest. She knew that feeling. The foreign substance had started draining her chakra with a familiar woozy sensation.

Datsuryokusou.

"Do we have results from a blood sample?" she asked the medics watching her. One nodded. "Let me get those for you," he said, hurrying to a shelf on the side of the room. Sakura waited a little impatiently, snatching the scroll from the medic when he brought it to her. Her eyes roved the contents, scanning the names of the different hormones and substances.

There was no mention of Datsuryokusou, but a spike in adrenaline levels caught her eye. She jumped down to the list of any foreign chemicals found in the creature's body. There was a whole host of them, making little sense on their own, but when put together...

"Soldier pills," she whispered in wonder. But they weren't regular soldier pills; they were modified, with doses of stimulants that would kill any normal human. The most glaring changes were astronomical increases in exactly the chemicals that stimulated adrenaline, as well as chakra production.

Datsuryokusou and soldier pills. How could those two things go together? One would think that the former would drain any extra chakra produced by the latter. Soldier pills with such high chemical levels could probably keep open the chakra gates, but wouldn't the Datsuryokusou counter that?

Unless... Unless the pills had been meddled with to the point where the Datsuryokusou became part of the chakra system. They resembled soldier pills more than anything else, but there were also chemicals that Sakura could not account for, and who knew? The right combination could facilitate the adoption of Datsuryokusou into the chakra system. Especially since these creatures had already been altered practically past the point of humanity...

Sakura understood now why Kakashi had called them zombies. They really weren't all that human. This was probably the experimental jutsu Kakashi had referred to, although she doubted that Kakashi understood it. Somehow, instead of harming the zombies, Datsuryokusou helped them.

After a moment of fierce contemplation it clicked. Touching the creatures sent chakra sparks flying, and it winded the assailant. Could the zombies be _sucking out the chakra_ of their opponents? Yes... That had to be it. Their bodies had been altered so that the Datsuryokusou was an organic part of them, helping to feed their racing chakra systems. How else could they sustain life while operating at such heightened capacities? This was the only explanation that fit.

But how to counter it? Her mind whirred, the two medics frowning at her in confusion completely forgotten. Humans were especially weak to Datsuryokusou, so they needed a special injection to protect against it... something that canceled out the power of the Datsuryokusou.

"The vaccines..."

A muffled cacophony of screeches made Sakura jump. She whipped her head around to try to locate the source of the noise, but it had come from outside. Goosebumps prickled all over her body as the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

"What the hell was that?" she hissed. She turned to the two suddenly stony medics behind her.

"It's them," one said simply.

Dread shot through Sakura's body as they heard a sudden crescendo of movement in the halls. Hundreds of people ran through the metal corridors, their echoes bouncing off each other and amplifying the terror.

Nobody had said anything about the zombies attacking Furegaton-- all people had been talking about was Succhikusu, Succhikusu, Succhikusu. Had the zombies caught them completely unsuspecting?

Immediately, the two medics began to grab for weapons. A set of swords hung on the far wall.

"You two are fighting?" Sakura asked quickly. They nodded, strapping their scabbards across their backs. "Well then, listen! These things have Datsuryokusou inside of them." The two medics looked at her in alarm. "I don't have time to explain how it works -- I don't know all of the details, I only just figured it out -- but we need to fight them with Shiirerusou!"

"You mean, the vaccines...?"

Sakura nodded vigorously. "Yes!" she said emphatically. "It'll cancel out their Datsuryokusou, and their chakra will run out of its own course!"

The two medics exchanged fearful looks. "But we can't get close enough to them," one protested. "They deflect weapons!"

"Only metal ones, right? But aren't the vaccines in insulated needles like the tranquilizers?"

Revelation curved their mouths into little 'oh's. "You're right!" they exclaimed in unison. The loud mobilization of shinobi continued in the background. Sakura bit her lip, looking around hastily.

"We need to get these to people," she said. "Is there anyone who's not going out right away?"

One of the medics shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Well, protocol dictates that most of the medical teams stay behind. So in theory they should do that, but this is kind of a panic..."

"Well, they're trained for this sort of thing, so let's hope they remember what they're supposed to do," Sakura said shortly. "We should arm the medical teams with Shiirerusou vaccines. Do we have enough?"

"We have plenty," the other medic assured her. The two men stepped past her, opening a metal door on the left side of the room. Sakura followed them through it to find a cramped room lit by a pulsing green light in the far corner. There was a tank full of Shiirerusou there, and the walls were lined with identical, hard plastic needles.

Sakura started grabbing the syringes off the walls. "Get the medical teams in here! We need to give them these." She handed some off to the two medics. "Give these out and then come back with everyone else."

They accepted the bundles, carefully trying not to jostle them in their arms. One left immediately, but the other hovered in the doorway as if just remembering something.

"Oh, Haruno-san!" he said. Sakura turned to look at him, pausing in bringing over a stool to reach the needles higher up on the wall. "Are you going to fight them!"

"Of course!" she said without thinking. How could she not? She couldn't just sit here idly while everyone else was out risking their lives. The fighter, medic, and teammate inside of her all agreed in a screaming unison that she had no choice but to join the battle.

The medic nodded. "You'll need a mask, then, but I don't think we have any on this side of the complex--"

Sakura shook her head. "Let me worry about that. Just go get the medical teams!"

The medic didn't leave quite yet. He jerked his head towards a cabinet on the wall. "If you're vaccinating yourself, you need to take one for each of the four different strains. And you should drink some of the medicine from this cabinet to help your body adjust more quickly!"

"All right, all right, now go!"

Obediently, the medic finally left her alone. Her ears rang as she looked around. She could waste time hunting the complex for a gas mask, but a much easier solution surrounded her.

Well, only easy in the immediate sense. Fifteen minutes or four months? According to Tsunade and Kakashi (as well as the search party coming to get her), she was heading back to Konoha tomorrow. But could she really leave? Did she really want to? Of course she missed home, but she thought that if she left, she might miss one or two things about this place, too...

She could identify with what Kakashi had said earlier. Once she got involved in this morbid mess, she felt personally responsible for the outcome in some strange way. Especially now that she had stumbled across a pretty monumental discovery.

So it was with only the slightest hesitation that she reached for one more vaccine.

Far from needle-shy, Sakura only took time to check the label -- _Shiirerusou A _-- before injecting herself in the shoulder. She let out a little hiss of discomfort as she felt the vaccine enter her blood and chakra systems. Quickly, she discarded the needle on a small table, ignoring the sound of it rolling across the surface. By the time it hit the floor, she was already injecting herself with the second vaccine, and then the third.

Her shoulder was already sore, but that was the least of her problems. She stood on the squat black stool to grab the final vaccine. The needle glinted in the eerie green glow of the Shiirerusou tank. Jumping down from the stool, she plunged the needle into her bicep.

The last one was by far the most painful. Sakura winced tightly against the pain, giving herself a few moments to just stand there and breathe before clambering towards the medicine cabinet. She could already feel the Shiirerusou starting to act on her chakra: She would need to get out into the Datsuryokusou fast before it ate her up.

She fumbled with the lock. After a feverish moment the cabinet doors burst open, and Sakura snatched a vial from the shelf. It was filled with a deep red liquid, and the entire cabinet filled her nose with the acidic smell of fruit.

A smirk twitched at her mouth in spite of herself. If Kakashi was going to be forced to submit to any sort of medicine, he was damn well going to make it enjoyable. The wry smile on her lips was washed in the deep taste of pomegranate as she swallowed the medicine.

Running her tongue over her lips, she closed the cabinet doors. She felt slightly dizzy, but she fought down the headiness. She needed to get her hands on weapons--

Ah, yes. A convenient set of scabbards hung on the wall in the examination room. Sakura jogged out of the vaccine room, stopping only to quickly stab the inert zombie on the table with another needleful of tranquilizer. Within a minute she had looped the scabbard around her back; the strap bisected her breasts in a bold diagonal stripe. Just as she was turning to the door, it bounced open.

A flood of medical teams was visible behind the few dark heads bobbing in the doorway. "Haruno-san!" It was the female medic from her first day in the examination room. "You said we need the vaccines?"

Sakura nodded fiercely and immediately began distributing Shiirerusou vaccines. She quickly learned that the female medic she had recognized was named Rakeshisu, and she and two others called Koroto and Atoraposu were in charge of the medical teams. The three women commanded complete authority over the teams, and they worked speedily with Sakura to make sure every medic was armed with a needle.

Unlike their usual method of hanging back, the teams were ordered to enter directly into the fray. Hopefully, they would be able to inject Shiirerusou into as many zombies as possible. That way, the zombies' Datsuryokusou boost would be neutralized, and they would be sitting ducks for the regular shinobi teams.

There was no time to warn the other shinobi of this plan. As soon as every medic wielded a vaccine, they mobilized. They ran through the metal corridors in an organized army of black. Even Sakura wore a black cloak that fluttered behind her as she moved, although her pink hair and dull green top distinguished her from the crowd. In the midst of the adrenaline clouding her mind, she managed to take small comfort in that fact: She was part of this now, but she would never let it consume her.

Then, for the first time in two weeks, Sakura was outside. The three teams split off into groups-- one behind each Rakeshisu, Koroto, and Atoraposu. Sakura followed Rakeshisu, veering to the left.

Everywhere, the shinobi were engaged with the bluish monsters. Their swift black forms darted to and fro; they were relying on their wooden swords to fight. The zombies' chakra must have been so volatile that metal weapons simply served as a conductor. A sprinkling of arrows shot down from the trees, but the bulk of archers had probably been concentrated on a different base, so the full force had not yet arrived.

Hopefully, they wouldn't be necessary. The medical teams infiltrated the fight quickly. At first the other shinobi were incredibly confused, trying to track the sudden movement while simultaneously fending off the zombies. Sakura even thought she spotted the silver of Kakashi's hair, but she didn't have time to confirm it as a zombie lumbered dangerously in front of her. Letting out an instinctive battle cry, she dodged its heavy-handed blow. She ducked underneath its arm and without a moment of hesitation, she plunged the needle into its neck.

A choked gasp scraped out of its throat. It didn't scream, perhaps didn't even register the pain. Instead it stumbled mutely backwards. Sakura took advantage of its disorientation and kicked it hard in the stomach.

Oh, it felt good. Two weeks of frustrated inactivity had made her physically ache to use her chakra again. A few muted sparks crackled at the site of impact, but the Shiirerusou vaccine was already taking effect.

Someone brought a wooden sword swinging towards the monster's neck, slicing it off in one fell swoop. Sakura had already begun to move to the next target, but the voice of the zombie's killer halted her.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Her gaze darted up to meet the fiery red Sharingan of none other than Hatake Kakashi.

"It's the Shiirerusou vaccine!" she panted, glancing wildly around to make sure that no zombies were heading towards them. "The zombies have Datsuryokusou in them that helps them suck out our chakra, but the vaccine cancels it out! Then they can't use their chakra at all!"

There was no time to explain it any further. Yanking the needle out of the zombie, she ran past Kakashi. The entire needle was not drained by one injection, and while in normal cases it was not appropriate to reuse a needle for reasons of sterility, Sakura wasn't too concerned about stabbing these zombies with contaminated needles.

Unleashing an unadulterated, primal shout, Sakura attacked another zombie. Before it could turn around, she sent the needle sinking into the nape of its neck. Instinctively, she had sent some of her own chakra into her arm to aid in the jab, pushing the needle deep into the zombie's flesh. It writhed soundlessly, twisting around to swipe blindly at her but missing. Sakura wondered briefly why their eyes were covered-- Perhaps the body was so singularly focused on adrenaline production that it shut down "unnecessary" areas of the brain? That would explain their animalistic nature, from their inability to speak to their apparent lack of intelligent thought.

The zombie staggered towards her, but she jumped out of the way, drawing her wooden sword. Even though she had never used a sword before, she sent chakra crackling through her fingers and hacked at the zombie's neck. Its head disconnected with a sickening crunch, falling into a muddy puddle at her feet.

She used her toe to nudge the head over so that its face was in the mud. Bracing her foot against the crown of its head for support, she tugged hard until the needle came free from its neck. Her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths, she squinted at the small store of liquid remaining. It would be enough for one, maybe two more.

Sakura rejoined the fight, incapacitating two more zombies. All throughout the base, the fight turned dramatically. The shinobi quickly caught on to the scheme and they followed the medics around, ready to behead the zombies as the medics neutralized their chakra. Metal weapons were suddenly not at all useless, and although many had been left behind, the shinobi forces were armed more than sufficiently to deal with a lumbering army of chakra-less thugs.

Once she had run out of vaccine, Sakura had joined the shinobi in disposing of the rest of the zombies. The rest of the battle happened in a blur. Now, she stood in the midst of the bluish bodies strewn across the wet ground. Sometime during the battle, rain had started to fall. It rinsed them in its cool spray, rising off of the bloody ground in a light mist.

Wiping her brow with the back of her hand, Sakura looked to her right. Sheathing his sword several yards away was the commander. She felt a swell of affection for him, probably amplified by the adrenaline of the battle. The hurt had not magically disappeared, but hadn't his only objection been that she wasn't staying?

She watched as Kakashi began picking his way through the bodies, catching a glimpse of his swirling red eye. He was probably using it to gauge the statuses of the bodies around him, judging who was alive and who was dead. It was a morbid job, but it was _his_ job.

Now, Sakura had every intention to stand beside him while he presided over this macabre world.


	7. Epilogue: The Arrangement

Epilogue: The Arrangement

* * *

_Aidoneus, the Ruler of Many, is no unfitting husband among the deathless gods for your child, being your own brother and born of the same stock: also, for honor, he has that third share which he received when division was made at the first, and is appointed lord of those among whom he dwells._

_- Homeric Hymn to Demeter_

_

* * *

_

_Dear Shishou,_

_First of all, I'd like to apologize to you. I know that I wasn't supposed to be gone for more than a few days, and that you must have been worrying about me a lot. It was pretty irresponsible of me not to report my location once I had been taken from Neebaru. I was pretty disoriented when I got there, and there were a lot of things going on at once, but none of it is an excuse for causing you so much worry._

_Unfortunately, it will be a little while until I come home again. There was an emergency situation and I ended up taking some vaccinations. They allowed me to participate in a surprise battle that happened here, but the nature of the medication dictates that I stay here for another four months until it wears off._

_So I'll be here for the next four months. However, it won't be a waste at all: There is a huge demand for medical talent here. They need someone like me, Shishou. You know that there's hardly anybody who can do some of the things that I can do (I learned from the best, of course). And the situation here is truly a fascinating one. I mean, don't get me wrong, this place is more than a little creepy, but at least with the vaccination I can go outside now without having to wear a gas mask._

_By the time the vaccine wears off, I'll probably be really homesick, though, so I'll be coming home then. I'm going to have to play it by ear after that-- I don't know if I'll be able to resist going back to this place, either. I'll probably end up spending about two thirds of the year in Konoha but take four months off to go back to Grass Country._

_I'm sorry that there wasn't really any warning of this, Shishou. And... I know that you probably think Kakashi forced me to stay here or something, but it really wasn't like that. I'm here because I want to be, even though I know part of you will probably never believe that. However, please don't think that it means that I don't want to be with you. I'm just going to have to try to find a balance between all of the people I love._

_Love,_

_Sakura_

_

* * *

_

Tsunade rubbed at her aching neck, yawning obscenely. A few chuunin assistants winced at her bad manners, but they knew better than to mention anything. They merely nodded their heads like mute little rabbits and handed her coffee when she demanded it of them. As it was now, they cleared the way for her when she exited the lab.

Leaving the hospital, she walked through Konoha's sunny streets. Leaves crunched beneath her heels as she walked, the stiletto piercing tarnished maple leaves.

She stopped at a small bridge. Gripping the red rail, she looked out on the creek that wove through part of the city. She chewed absently on the sheaf of grain sticking out from between her teeth. Despite her initial misgivings, she had actually grown attached to it-- and somehow, it was better at curbing her drinking habits than Shizune ever had been. (That wasn't saying much, though.)

However, four months would be a long time to follow through on an arbitrary promise to quit drinking. So, as she had done so many times before, she waved a fond farewell to abstinence. She crossed her eyes as she blew the thin piece of wheat out of her mouth. It floated serenely down on the drifting breeze, finally landing gently on the water. Little ripples spread out from the point of impact, and the grain began to twirl in lazy loops on the water.

She would miss Sakura. There was no doubt about that. Already her presence was a tangible void in her chest, but she hoped that time would ease it. Four months was far less than the lifetime she had to go without most of her loved ones. And if this was what Sakura wanted...

Ultimately, Tsunade had two choices: Come to terms with it or suck it up. For now she was doing the latter, but she hoped that the former would eventually come to her. She would really hate for something like this to cause a rift in her treasured relationship with Sakura.

_I'm just going to have to try to find a balance between all of the people I love._ Sakura's words implied that Kakashi was included in that category. He was hardly the first person Tsunade would have chosen for her surrogate daughter, but it was Sakura's choice. Even if she personally considered Kakashi far too jaded and dark for someone as earnest and bright as Sakura, who was she to say? Few would have suspected that Tsunade would ever have returned Jiraiya's advances, but she had somehow managed to love that oaf. Of course, as with most of Tsunade's romantic endeavors, it had been cut short. She didn't want Sakura to have to deal with the same fate. If she found love now, then by all means, Tsunade wanted her to take it.

It just stung a little, that was all. Wrinkling her nose, she pulled out a letter that Neji had sent her. She had only skimmed it the first time, not having been in the mood to read it, but now she looked at it in more detail.

_Dear Tsunade-sama,_

_I have heard that the past few weeks have been particularly rough on you. I am sorry to hear that._

_However, I am not writing to offer my condolences. After all, it's not like it's a funeral. I cannot speak for either Kakashi or Sakura, but from what I have observed of Kakashi, he cares deeply for the people around him. I doubt that he would do anything to hurt Sakura any more than he already has by cutting himself off from her for four years. __Although Sakura's arrival was the result of having been rescued by Kakashi and not necessarily of her own volition, I am sure the decision to stay was hers alone.__We are not children anymore. She is a shinobi and a woman, capable of making her own choices._  
_  
It may seem a little presumptuous of me to write this to you. I'm sure you'll punish me for my cheek with a sharp reprimand and probably a few projectiles next time we see each other. Actually, I'm thinking of coming back in a few months-- I'll probably go with Sakura on her trip back to Konoha. Everyone needs a break from a place like this every once in a while._

_Really though, I was just writing to vouch for Kakashi. I'm sure you sort of hate him right now, but he's really not that bad. As I previously mentioned, I think that he has deep compassion for the people he loves. And as you already know, he would protect his teammates with his life, so imagine what lengths he'd go to to protect Sakura._

_Nevertheless, I'll do my best to keep an eye on him._

_Sincerely,_

_Hyuuga Neji_

Tsunade blew out a tired sigh. Trust Neji to throw in levels of cheek and pretention just to infuriate her. Was this letter supposed to be a consolation? So Kakashi was a great guy. Big whoop. He had plenty of faults, such as being Icha Icha's number one fan. _That _certainly wasn't winning him any awards in Tsunade's book.

Still, she supposed she would just have to trust Sakura's judgment. All she had to do was trust Kakashi.

Well... _eventually_. For now, she was content to spend her free time envisioning different ways to castrate him.

There was only so much that could be asked of a mother separated from her daughter.

* * *

Kakashi found Sakura asleep on the dark couch. It was no longer appropriate for her to occupy one of the beds in the medical wings, but she hadn't been assigned quarters yet. Besides, everyone secretly knew that this couch was the most comfortable spot in the camp.

Affection curved his mouth into a soft smile as he looked down on Sakura. She was snoring lightly, head resting on a faded maroon pillow that was propped up against an arm of the couch. One of her arms was thrown back, dangling limply in the air, and one of her legs had slipped so that her foot touched the floor. A blanket had been tangled in her limbs.

It was the funniest thing he had seen in four years. His face was starting to hurt from smiling. He sat down on the velvet chair (his personal favorite), deciding after a moment that he should probably wake her. The last thing he wanted was to be accused of being creepy.

From one of his many hidden pockets, he pulled out a paper report. Whatever it was, he had undoubtedly already memorized it with his Sharingan, so he felt no guilt whatsoever in folding it into a paper airplane. After a few moments of careful creasing, he sent the miniature aircraft whizzing towards her. Right on target, it hit her square in the nose.

She started, waving her arms wildly as she awoke. "What!" Blinking open, her eyes swerved around the room until they settled on Kakashi.

Her confused irritation was instantly muted, and a tentative smile tugged at her lips. "Kakashi?" she asked uncertainly. After all, their last meeting had been less than pleasant. He gave her a reassuring smile through his mask.

"Haruno Sakura, you are a genius." His voice was soft with awe.

Now she was grinning, a little bashfully. Her face was flushed with pride. "I'm hardly useless baggage, huh?"

He blinked at the familiar phrasing. _Strange coincidence, _he mused. Just that morning he had talked about Sakura to the photograph of the Memorial Stone hanging in his room. (He was fully aware that most people would probably have found that incredibly morbid, but he wasn't about to skip out on four years of paying his respects just because of a minor location change.) The photograph was no less yielding than the Stone when it came to giving Kakashi answers, but at least that way he could pretend he had Obito's blessing.

He didn't think Obito would mind Sakura, though. Surely Obito would be pleased that Kakashi had finally gotten over his own antisocial habits to be with someone he truly cared about?

Brushing those thoughts aside, Kakashi almost smiled again at Sakura before realizing that he was already doing so. He gave a short, unexplained laugh before saying, "So, I noticed a conspicuous lack of gas mask."

"Yes..." Sakura had a finger pressing lightly onto her lower lip. Kakashi doubted she even realized she was doing it, but he found it incredibly endearing.

"Looks like I'm stuck with you for the next four months," Kakashi joked.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "More like _I'm _stuck with _you_!" She laughed, sitting up fully on the couch. Once the laugh had subsided, she began twirling a lock of hair around her finger like cotton candy.

"I'll probably be pretty homesick by then," she said, and he assumed she meant the time when her vaccine wore off. "And I sent a letter promising Tsunade I'd go home after the four months. But... I also told her I'd probably be coming back."

Rarely did he wear a smile so broad. "Sounds excellent."

She hesitated for a moment before patting the couch beside her. Surprised, Kakashi accepted the invitation and came to sit down next to her. This put a satisfied (albeit slightly nervous) smile on her face. He opened his mouth to tease her about something, but the thought was instantly forgotten as she titled her face up to kiss him.

It was a small, chaste kiss. He remembered that Sakura hadn't liked trying to kiss him through his mask, so he obligingly hooked a finger under the cotton and dragged it down, letting it pool around his neck as he leaned in to kiss her again.

The nakedness of his lips brushed against hers, softly and hesitantly at first. He reached over to her, sliding his fingers through her silky pink locks before he pulled her closer to him. He relished the tender warmth of her lips as he deepened their kiss. He knew that her stay would be temporary, but Kakashi tried not to dwell on that now. Instead, he savored the warmth of Sakura's kiss. She was his precious ray of light, here in the misty darkness.

After a few moments of blissful tranquility, Sakura broke the kiss, leaving only a breath of space between their mouths. He could feel her lips stretch into a grin as she whispered against him.

"Your world is dark, but I know it's your job to watch over it... I'll be here with you now, though-- You could say that I pledge myself to you, the lord of this underworld."


End file.
